


To Rise on Burning Wings

by Wonderdyke



Category: Kingsman (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Magic, Alternate Universe - Magical Realism, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst, Bottom!Harry, Incubus!Eggsy, M/M, Magical Realism, Magical Tattoos, Mpreg, Nephilim, Nephilim!Harry, Nephilim!Merlin, Other, Past Rape/Non-con, Soul Bond, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates, Wing Kink, intersex!Eggsy, top!Merlin, verse!Eggsy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-08
Updated: 2018-05-07
Packaged: 2019-04-20 03:58:12
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 26,148
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14252559
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wonderdyke/pseuds/Wonderdyke
Summary: Eggsy Unwin was the forgotten castaway, the son of a dead hero.  He grew up hard and he grew up fast, learning to survive as he raised himself on the streets. That survival instinct?  That's what had spurred him into becoming one of the best mages in London, maybe the whole country.  Instinct, and his sense of right and wrong. Oh, people thought because he was half-Incubus he couldn't be a good guy.  Well, they were berks. He was just as much a hero as his father. Even if he didn't know it.Harry Hart had flown beside his soulmate, Merlin, for over a century.  The pair had mated young, put together after the appearance of their marks and forged into an unbreakable bond through the tragedies of war, the loss of friends.  Though he longed for their third, dreams filled with the emotional echoes of their young man's pain, he would listen to his love, his Prince, and wait.Merlin King, Prince of the Nephilim and rightful heir loathed war, loathed the death and chaos of it.  Yet he'd helped turn the tides in The War of Purification only to have his uncle usurp the throne in his absence.  To reclaim it he would have to fight once more... with his soulmates by his side.





	1. Carry On My Wayward Son

**Author's Note:**

> Some words about Magnus Bane. He's loosely based on the character from City of Bones by Cassandra Clare. I read the books years ago and, as I was writing this story, he seemed a little too familiar. I'm not tagging this in that fandom because honestly, Magnus isn't important enough to warrant that. That being said, enjoy the story!
> 
> If you've come here from Save the Last Dance, let me know in the comments!
> 
> Questions, comments, concerns? Want to flame me or beg for more chapters? You can contact me via tumblr: www.tumblr.com/blog/wonderdyke

Eggsy tumbled to the red silk sheets, pale skin golden amongst the glittering lights of Magnus’ spell.  The dark-skinned Demon-Mage expended energy like breathing, the power of his conjuring like eddies against Eggsy’s starved flesh.

“You waited too long, _libi_ ,” Magnus chastised even as he peeled the gaudy robes from his ebony skin.  Etched across his body in endless swirling letters was _amharic_ , the runes glittering in the light.  Eggsy didn’t want to think about the pain of having liquid gold fused into flesh, especially not on his bedfellow.

Still, it was striking, the swirl of the metal on the near-black of his body.  His braids swung heavily around his face as the warlock kneeled on the edge of the mattress, matching beads clinquant amongst the locks.

“I know,” Eggsy grunted as Magnus pinned him to the bed… gentle, too gentle.  “More, harder… fuck, Mag, I - !”

“Shhh, darling,” the man growled, teeth nipping at Eggsy’s throat.  “I will give you what you need, don’t I always?”

“Yes,” he sagged, slumping against the bedsheets as he ignored the disjointed buzz under his skin; a fiery ache formed from sleeping with someone not his soulmate.

Magnus pressed adoring kisses into his flesh, interspersing it with the rough drag of teeth.  Eggsy felt the curl of arousal, the heady rush as he pulled it into his body, drinking energy and magic from warlock’s powerful flesh.  His Incubus blood was screaming to be fed, to be sated.

“Take deeply, little half-breed.  I am not weakened. Drink much as you wish.”

“Want you inside me, Magnus.   _Please._ ”  He hated this, hated how his body craved sex and loathed it in equal measure.  His Incubus half _needed_ sex, needed to feed upon the arousal of others.  But his human half, the half that made him open to a bond, was already tied - mind, body and soul - to two men he had never met.

So, he compromised and took one lover.  Not that that wasn’t all sorts of _fraught_.

Magnus _loved_ him, _adored_ him.  The hundred-year-old Demon-Mage looked at him like he hung the moon.  Except that weren’t him, that was the soulmate he’d never bonded with… Lee Unwin, his father.  His _human_ father.

Which was all sorts of fucked up.  

Magnus had plucked him off of the streets at sixteen and never asked a goddamn thing of him.  Hadn’t even told him about his connection to Lee until years later when, at twenty, his Incubus side sexually matured and he was _gagging_ for sex.  Magnus had tried to deny him, to be the better man which…

Eventually, Magnus had caved.   _Of course_ , he’d caved.  Eggsy was weak and needy and looked so much like his Da that he could _see_ how it broke Magnus’ heart when Eggsy orgasmed beneath him that first time, cried out his name and then immediately _hurt_ because Magnus was not _his_ soulmate.  When Eggsy needed to leave, needed to put distance between himself and the warlock who loved him so much and would _never_ be his; Magnus bought him a flat across town.  Helped him re-establish his Dad’s consulting business.

See, Lee had been a damn good wizard, mage… whatever.  And Eggsy? With a powerful sorcerer’s blood and his Incubus lineage, he was that much better.  Spent his whole life studying spellcraft to be the _fucking best._  Didn’t matter that he’d taught himself to read while living amongst the debauchery of the Übbii court- after his Da died, his Mum had gone home and dragged her unwanted half-breed son with her.

There was a reason Übbii abandoned their children with humans to raise, their court was no place for kids.  So, at fourteen years old, he’d run away. Starved on the streets for two years til Mag found him.

Mag who befriended him. Who taught him. Who protected him.

Eggsy could speak eight languages, most learned from the ancient tomes in Magnus’ home.  He could out conjure men and women twice his age. He was only twenty-eight and he was one of the best mages in the city, maybe the country.  He’d built Kingsman Consulting up from the ashes of his father’s death and he’d done it with Magnus’ selfless help.

Magnus was half- _demon_.  Magically aligned with death and all the shite people thought of as evil.  But he tried to be good, tried to be better than what his blood dictated.

So _why_ did he fight with the warlock every time they were in the same room?  Why couldn’t he just accept the man’s affection?

Because it felt wrong.  Deep inside him, his soul knew Magnus wasn’t his.  Magnus didn’t feel it because his soulmate was dead, but Eggsy could.  A crawling beneath his skin like fire ants.

Even as Magnus fucked him just perfect, hard and fast and without mercy, his veins itched for the sense of _rightness_.  When Magnus spilt inside him, he screwed his eyes shut and imagined two faceless men looming above him, loving him, adoring him as Magnus adored him.  And as Magnus reached for his cock, bringing him over the edge of his own release, he cried out wordlessly for the men who’s soulmarks matched his own.

If he wept for them, then Magnus loved him enough to pull Eggsy into his arms and hold him without saying a word.

Eggsy’s fingers traced over the smooth gold embedded in Magnus’ dark skin, sniffling as his tears slowed.  “Sorry, guv.”

“Nothing to be sorry about, my love.”

“Please…” Eggsy whimpered, pulling away to sit on the edge of the bed.  His body was singing with energy, Incubus blood sated and well fed. “Please don’t call me that.”  Eggsy curled into himself as if to shield from the pain he knew he carved into Magnus’ heart.

“Should I pretend I do not feel as I do, _tinishu gezhi?”_

 _“Volo enim vos oderunt me,”_ Eggsy hissed as he plucked at the smooth sheets.

“I could never hate you, _carissime.”_

“I ain’t yours, Mag.  I can’t _be_ yours.”

The warlock sighed, shifting around.  Eggsy was grateful that he didn’t reach out and touch him.  Weren’t that messed up? He could fuck the man, demand his time and steal his affection but he didn’t want to be touched… held.  “Do you think I would keep you from your _anima salit_?”

“No, Mag.  I know you wouldn’t.  S’why this is so fucked, yeah?  I come in here and I break your fucking heart and you ain’t never asked me for nothing.  I don’t get it.”

“My reasons are my own, _fik’ire_.”

“You paid my Da back when you gave me a place to stay.  Ain’t gotta do… this. Not if you don’t… not if it hurts you.”

“You think I do this out of obligation to Lee?” Magnus hissed, hands cupping Eggsy’s hunched shoulders.  Once that touch would have been soothing, before they were lovers, before this madness that was his life.  The warlock’s lips pressed against his ear, speaking in _Amharic_ , Mag’s native tongue.   _“You are the last bit of my heart left in this world.  The last fragment of the man I love. How can I not love you?  How can I not do everything in my power to see you happy?”_

“I ain’t happy.”

“Such is my failure, _carissime._  Not yours.  If it were in my power to find them…”

“I know,” Eggsy choked, grateful when the other man released him.  “Too good to me by half.”

“The world owes you a debt it cannot repay.  Your father gave his life in the working that ended the war.  I am merely trying to balance the scales.”

“Yeah,” Eggsy huffed, fishing in his jeans for the pack of _biris_.  Pulling one free and holding it to his lips, he wasn’t surprised that a ghostly flame hovered in front of him.  He lit the end and sucked in the mix of phantom weed, tobacco and clove. The combination was deadly to mundanes, but he was far from that; even the paralytics in the phantom weed couldn’t affect him, only relax him.

He breathed the vapour into his lungs, letting it soothe the jittering from their coupling.

“You smoke too much.”

“I know.”

“Will you stay?”  Damn if the warlock didn’t sound the least bit hopeful, even after everything.

“Can’t, babe,” Eggsy refused, thumbing at the swell of his own pectoral as he chewed his lip.  “Sorry.”

The warlock sighed but didn’t try to convince him.  Eggsy didn’t even look when Magnus rose from the bed and started to dress.

Feet appeared in his vision as he pulled another hit into him.

“Will you look at me, Eggsy?”

His eyes flicked up, meeting Mag’s; entirely black as their depths danced with hellfire.  “So beautiful,” he said softly, brushing his knuckles over Eggsy’s cheek. “Take this with you.”  The warlock conjured, or rather summoned, a bag of gold into his hand. All money had anti-conjuring built into it, so the sack must have come from somewhere, whether is be another room or a bank across the world.

Eggsy complained, “I make decent money.”

“And I have more than I could ever possibly spend.  Take it. Let it buy you the comfort I cannot give.”

“Mag…” he choked, rising from the bed and wriggling into the man’s embrace.  Clothed, he could touch the warlock just like anyone else without it hurting.  “I wish - “

“There’s nobody out there to grant it, _fik’ire_.  Nor would I desire them to.  Someday your soulmates will find you.  I do not care to be in their way.”

Eggsy snorted against the sandalwood scent of his velvety robes.  “They’ve had near thirty years to hunt me down, Mag. Ain’t holding my fucking breath.”

“Whatever prevents our scry, perhaps it prevents them from finding you?  Still, the universe has a way of bringing the scattered shards of hearts together.”

“Fat lot of good it did for you.”

Magnus stiffened under his hands.

“I’m sorry, babe.  I didn’t mean - “

“It’s alright, Eggsy.  Already forgiven.” Magnus smoothed his hair, the touch of skin to skin making his skin crawl again.  “There’s some workings in my library. I should check on their progress.”

“Yeah,” Eggsy whispered as he stepped back, hearing the dismissal.

Magnus nodded at him before spinning and sauntering away.  “Take the money, Eggsy,” he called over his shoulder.

Eggsy dressed, leaving the bag on the mattress as he let himself out of his once-home.  He wasn’t surprised when he stepped out into the London night that the pocket of his jeans was suddenly heavy with coins.

“Mag,” Eggsy shook his head, smiling fondly at the mew house behind him.  “If I could love you, babe, I would.”

~~~

Harry hissed and lashed his wings as his soulmark began to burn and itch.  Their soulmate was in the arms of another; dark jealousy and pain twisted in his stomach.  “Merlin,” he whimpered as his mate alighted next to him on the balcony, London rain beginning to drizzle over them.  The dark Nephilim did not care about the damp soaking his loose trousers and slicking his bare chest as he pulled Harry into his arms.

“Try not to judge him,” Merlin soothed, wrapping his arms around Harry’s thinner frame.  “No doubt he is in pain without us.”

“Pain of his own making.  I can’t - I _need_ him, my love.”

Harry’s wings splayed out and twisted in distress, stretching to their ten-foot length before tucking close to his back.  Merlin’s darker and larger wingspan folded around Harry’s, sheltering them from the elements despite the door to their home a few steps away.  In the refuge of their feathers, Harry could breathe a bit easier, despite the pain burning over his heart.

He settled his wings a bit closer, tucking them in Merlin’s warmth.  Once he’d thought them beautiful, the downy white feathers shot through with threads of silver which sparkled gossamer, like the shimmering wings of dragonflies in the light.

That was before he’d met the young Merlin with his melanic wings, so dark they seemed to be spun from the very shadows save for when the sun alighted upon them.  They would shimmer the deepest green, blue, purple - an oil slick swirl of magic that extended through the long coverts of his flight feathers right to the tip where turned a bright gold as if dipped by Midas himself.

Yet, Harry preferred the simple soft black of Merlin’s downy under-feathers, the space by the joint where all Nephilim’s oil glands stood.  In a Light Nephilim, like Harry’s lineage, the oil could be used to heal, to bring back those from the very edges of death and to craft powerful spellwork.

In Dark Nephilim, such as his blood-sworn and mate Merlin, it could summon the very shadows to hide one’s steps or as a virulent poison when mixed with his own oils and some herbs.  It was used in some of the darkest, most destructive spells human mages had ever woven. Heady and dangerous. But to Harry, the oil of his mate and bonded held no danger.

“To bring him - whoever he is - into our lives would bring him only danger and fear.  Chester hunts me still.” Merlin’s blunt fingers pried open the toggles on Harry’s loose shirt.  Slipping his hands against the thinner man’s warm flesh, he drew his mate close. “I dinnae know how to ease yer pain, love.”

Harry leaned in closer, burying his face against Merlin’s neck as the pain of their burning soulmarks eased.  A single sob escaped his throat.

Merlin palmed over the mark, three birds in flight chasing each other in an endless circle: a great black hawk - no doubt representing Merlin, a snowy owl for Harry and, between them and half their size a colourful American Kestrel with blues and reds that stood brightly against both their skin tones.

A hawk for valour, an owl for wisdom and a kestrel for agility of the body, of the mind.

“If we parted - “

 ** _“No,”_** Harry seethed, nipping at Merlin’s neck in displeasure.

“You could be with him.”

“And _without_ you.  I will _always_ be by your side, my love.  Over a century we have flown together, fought in _wars_ \- “  Harry nuzzled into Merlin’s hand as it cupped his cheek, the dark Nephilim fingering over the leather of his eyepatch.  “ - buried friends. The boy… he hurts. My dreams are filled with sadness and pain.”

“I’m glad I am nae gifted with an empath’s ability.”

“Well _I am_ , and I can feel the shards of his soul bleeding.  If he were with us - “

“We felt his birth,” Merlin cut Harry reasoning off, “but twenty-seven years ago - “

“Nearly twenty-eight.”

“- he’s too young for battle.”

“Lee was younger when he gave his hand to save your life.  Lee was younger when he died and the twelve other sorcerers, besides, to end the foolish War of Purification and for what?  For those who loathe half-breeds to become respectable in human circles and steal thrones in magical ones so that they might persecute from positions of authority?” Harry sighed, pulling himself from Merlin’s embrace.  Under the rain, Harry phased his wings into his back. The appendages turning into a swirl of light and mist before absorbing into flesh, a gossamer tattoo on his skin echoing their true form.

Harry continued, “Mgga and Dzrat were younger than he is now when I gave my eye to save her life and they pledged themselves to our service.”

“It is no’ his battle,” Merlin said firmly, wings snapping to shake off the droplets of water before phasing into his back.  As he turned to go inside, Harry was struck once more by how soft the tattoo looked, as if he could reach out and feel the silk of his feathers against the Nephilim's skin.  

Opening the massive french doors that lead into their two-story training room on the forty-fifth floor of the tower of flats they owned, Merlin did not look back as Harry followed.

“Prince! Prince!” a chittering voice shouted, Dzrat - a flash of green-grey skin - landed too fast and the water took his feet out beneath him.  He slid across the floor as his twin, Mgga, landed more gracefully, claws clacking on the stone floors as she followed her brother into their home. She sunk to both knees, her wings flaring before the radiale joint lowered and touched the ground in a gesture of abject surrender.

Harry’s blood ran cold.  Mgga was as proud as any female imp, she would never bow so deeply - even to her superiors - unless something was very wrong.

Looking out into the sheets of rain, his eyes scanned for his niece.  “Where is Roxanne?” Harry gritted.

“Forgive Mgga, One-Eyed Prince,” Mgga murmured, tongue stalling awkwardly over the syllables of human speech.  “The young princess was shot down in flight. Dzrat and Mgga tried to find Princess in city but could not track.”

A glance at his mate showed the Nephilim drawing his angel blade - a claymore - from the tattoo on his forearm.  He drew his palm down the blade staining it with his blood before he called, “Roxanne Morton.”

Harry’s heart thundered in his chest as they waited for her to answer the summons.  Nothing.

“Roxanne Morton,” Merlin hissed again even as Harry’s heart twisted.

“I will scry for her,” he managed past the lump in his throat.   _Please be alive._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Language Notes:  
> The native language for Bane is Amharic, an Ethiopian dialect because his human mother hailed from this region. His father's native language is Aramaic as are all demons. You'll also see a smattering of Latin and other languages spoke by Eggsy and Bane.  
> The Nephilim speak Enochian natively but because that conlang does not have anywhere near enough words to suit my purposes, I'm making up a lot out of a combo of Arabic and Greek with a healthy dose of fiddling.  
> We also might hear some Sidhe(Elvish) later because WHY NOT? I will stick translations for new words at the end of each chapter.
> 
> Libi - Dear One (Totes made up)  
> Tinishu Gezhi - Little Prince (Amharic)  
> Volo enim vos oderunt me - You should hate me (Latin)  
> Carissime - my love/ dear (Latin)  
> Anima Salit - Soulmates (Latin)  
> Fik'ire - My Love (Amharic)


	2. Wake Up

Eggsy’s motorbike roared through Kennington in the late hours, street lights flickering as he passed.  The bound spirit of the hellhound within disrupting the electricity in the mostly mundane district.

“C’mon JB,” he argued with the entity sealed within, “don’t be like that.”  He felt the stinging bite of the hound’s spirit on his neck, like the nip of a small dog.  He reached up between the cross-strapped handles of his katana’s and under the collar of his leather jacket to palm the mark.

“Oi!  None of that, JB,” Eggsy admonished, “naughty.”

Technically, the name of the hell-beast was Jyan-Ba’alanama, but Eggsy had only said it when he had bound the wild spirit within the closest compatible vessel.  That the possessed bike chose Eggsy for his master and followed him until Eggsy relented was a surprise, it seemed, only to Eggsy. Magnus had thought it a lark; laughing his arse off when the motorbike appeared on their doorstep after literally crossing an ocean on its own.  Who knew hellhounds knew how to stow away?

Turned out the spirits were only dangerous killing machines when unbound.  When cleaved to the will of a more advanced lifeform they took on the characteristics of their master.  Eggsy didn’t like to think about why the hell-beast was more like puppy than a hound and petulant besides.

Eggsy shouted in surprise as the bike squealed to a stop in the middle of the deserted road, refusing to move an inch further.

“I promise, next time I’ll make Magnus come out and say ‘hello’.  You were sleeping as soon as I parked you.”

JB’s engine roared angrily.

“Alright, alright.  I’ll get you whatever you want.”

An image of slaughtered porcines flashed through Eggsy’s mind.

“‘Kay, pig’s blood it is.  Whatever you want, ducky.”

The motorcycle purred happily and started rolling forward when a scream - high and feminine - split the misty night.

“JB, track it down.”

Bound within the metal shell of the Triumph Bonneville, the machine no longer needed fuel save for the blood the beast within demanded.  It could operate even in the depths of Fae where no machines could go and it was impervious to mechanical failure. But, that didn’t mean the hellhound didn’t retain its ability to scent, to track and slaughter.

The bike peeled out, squealing forward and taking a corner at the last moment.  Eggsy held on tightly as the back tyre screeched on the wet pavement.

Eggsy saw them before the demon-cycle fully stopped.  

Dean’s boys.  

Purifiers.

He jumped off the motorbike, grateful he’d worn his dragon skin boots as he stumbled at the change in momentum even as he summoned an ice spell.  The alley was too narrow for fire or lightning lest he harm their victim, but an ice spell always hit its mark and only its mark.

“The fuck!” Poodle yelped as the spike nicked his bicep.

“First one’s a warning,” Eggsy growled, “next goes somewhere vital.”

The five men peeled off the collapsed form, a quick glance showed a girl and large hawk wings.  Gotta be a Nephilim. Half-breed, if the Purifiers were after her, even they weren’t stupid enough to go after pure breeds and start a war.

“Fuck,” Rottie hissed, showing half-rotten teeth from a Nectar addiction.  “It’s Bane’s rent-boy.”

“Oi!” Another scrawny human Eggsy didn’t have a  _ praenomen _ for cried, swatting Rottie on the head.  “Don’t fucking  _ call _ him that.”

They were backing down the alley, toward the dead end.

“Don’t know where you are headed, bruv, but there ain’t nowhere to go.”

Poodle tilted his chin up, meeting Eggsy in the eyes like he wasn’t holding a knife covered in blood. “You gonna let us go, Unwin?”

“You are fucking cockroaches, ain’t ya?  No point in killing a few of you, just have the fuzz on my door for killing humans.  There’s more where you came from.”

“Didn’t know you were half smart, Eggy,” Rottie sneered.

“Shut the  _ fuck _ up, Rot,” the nameless one hissed.

“‘Course, if I let you go, you’re gonna pass a message to Dean for me, yeah?”

“Sure, mage,” Poodle grunted.  “What you want ‘im to know?”

“Tell him I know about the warehouse in Bishop’s Ward.  I see one drop of Nectar come into Southwark and I’ll be coming for him.”

Poodle blanched but didn’t comment.  “I’ll tell ‘im.”

“Good.  Now, get.”

Eggsy stepped to the side, letting the five humans skitter past him and into the dark of London’s streets.

The Nephilim groaned, clutching at a sanguine stain on her shirt as she came around.

“Shh, darling,” Eggsy soothed as he knelt next to her, summoning healing magic to his hands.  He skimmed over her body, probing with the spell and knitting the stab wounds and slashes, the broken bones where’d they kicked her but, before he could move to her wings she sprung awake.

“Wait!” he implored even as she twisted away, running to the mouth of the alley and tried to launch herself into the air.

She took as few stuttering flaps before she crashed into the centre of the main road.

“Shit,” he hissed as he gave chase.

Eggsy darted out as a car was barreling toward them.  He cast a quick force spell, jerking the vehicle around them.

“Fucking mutts!” the driver shouted as Eggsy wrapped her arm over his shoulders and pulled her back to the sidewalk.

“I ain’t trying to hurt you, Nephilim.  Trying to heal you. ‘Kay, babe?”

The girl nodded stiffly as Eggsy lowered her to the pavement.

“What’s your  _ praenomen _ ?” he asked gently, trying to distract her as he pulled her wings taut.  The radius was snapped in half, no way she was flying till it was mended.

“R-Roxy,” she stuttered.  There was no hum to the name, no magical thrum of a true name spoke from the mouth of the bearer.  It's why everyone went by their  _praenomens_ , 'cause if you accidentally spoke your true name to someone they had power over you.  Sometimes a little, sometimes a lot, but telling someone your real name was a big fucking deal.

“Eggsy,” he replied.  

She hissed as the bone set but didn’t move.  “That’s a shit name, Eggsy. Think you’d choose something better.”

“It kinda stuck.  Besides, real name’s worse.”  He summoned the healing touch once more, pouring energy into the fragile bones and helping them knit.  He’d have to see Magnus again, sooner than he’d planned anyways.

“Can’t imagine worse than ‘Eggsy’,” she teased, moaning at the pleasuring sensation of the spell.  “I’ve never had a healer be so gentle, to use extra energy to make it feel nice. You’re good.”

“Thanks, babe.  For that, I’ll pretend like you didn’t just insult my name.”

Roxy smiled, though it was weak on her sallow face.

“Ain’t nothing I can do about the blood loss.  And I wouldn’t fly on that mend. S’enough to have it heal proper but it’ll still be a few weeks until you can use it.”

“Thank you, I have to…” she reached toward her forearm and froze.  “Fuck!”

“What is it?” Eggsy asked.

“They stole my blades!”  Roxy tried to stand too quickly and stumbled, Eggsy catching her and leaning her against the wall.  Startling him, her hawk-looking wings turned to red smoke before disappearing.

“Shit!” Eggsy hissed, jumping back, “they supposed to do that?”

She chuckled, the sound faint as she leaned heavily on the bricks.  “Yeah, it was on purpose.”

“Can’t say we get much Nephilim around here.”

“No,” she said, not unkindly as she looked around.  “I suppose you don’t.” She heaved a sigh before asking, “do you know where I can find them?”

“You don’t wanna go after them, babe.  Couple of Purifiers got the drop on you, ain’t no way you can take the whole gang of ‘em.”

“I have to.  My blades are a piece of my soul.  If they destroy them, I die.”

“Well, fuck.”  

Eggsy whistled, JB rolling out from a nearby alley and stopping next to them.  He started rummaging in his saddlebags, looking for his hand mirror.

“Is that a… a hellhound?” she gasped, laying her hand on the sealing rune between JB’s handlebars.  “How did you come by one?”

“You can sense him, huh?”  She nodded. “He was causing some problems in France, got asked to take a look.  He’s still young for a hellhound, more pup than evil beast.”

Roxy’s eyes narrowed to his hands, buried deep in the suspiciously deep bags.  “What are you doing?”

“So many questions… calling for backup.  I’m good, but I can’t take Dean’s boys alone.  And you’re gonna be next to useless with your injuries.”

The girls looked like she wanted to argue but said, “I’m grateful.”

“Ain’t a Fae.  You can say ‘thank you’.”

“My apologies, I wasn’t sure.  Thank you.”

“I’m a half-breed but there ain’t a drop of Fae in me, to my knowledge.  And you’re welcome.” Eggsy fished the athame out of the inner pocket of his leather jacket and unsheathed it, nicking his thumb he spread it over the bottom of the mirror’s glass.  “Magnus Bane,” he murmured, adding a curl of power as his breath fogged the reflection.

As it started to clear the image rippled before resolving into Magnus’ scowling face.  “Eggsy?”

“I’m about to do something real stupid, babe.”

The sigh the warlock offered was long-suffering.  “And what would that be?”

Eggsy’s body shivered with burgeoning arousal.  When he wasn’t being touched by the half-demon and the disjointed jitters weren’t in his bones he could recognise how fucking  _ fit _ the man was.  He knew his eyes had shifted - did whenever he was turned on - the blue turning full black like Magnus’ eyes, though his didn’t glitter with hellfire.

“I’m gonna attack a Purifier stronghold.”

Magnus growled protectively, the sound magnified by the awakening of his dark powers.  “Why, in Hell’s great vastness, would you do that,  _ tinishu gezhi _ ?”

“Made a new friend.  They stole her blades.”

“Would this new friend be Nephilim?” Magnus asked pointedly, a dark eyebrow arching.

“Yeah, babe.  I get it if you don’t wanna help, being blood enemies and all.”

“No, no,” the warlock brushed his comment off.  “I haven’t given allegiance to the blood vengeance of my kind since I was first born.  I suppose retrieving a piece of a nephilim’s soul is a good cause. Besides, if I am there, Dean may see reason and return them.”

“Can you call the boys?  Might need extra hands.”

“I loathe fighting with werekynde.  I always come home smelling of wet dog.”  Magnus heaved another agitated sigh before caving.  “But for you, my love, I shall.”

“You’re aces.”

“I will meet you there and… Eggsy?”

“Yeah?”

“Do not go inside without me.”

“‘Course, babe.  Wouldn’t dream of it.”

He tucked the mirror away as it blanked and turned to find Roxy staring with her mouth open.  “Was that…? Was that  _ THE _ Magnus Bane?”

“Yeah, Scourge of London.  Protector of Southwark. S’him,” Eggsy shrugged as he straddled JB.

“He called you ‘my love’.”

“It’s complicated.”  He pulled on his helmet, offering a second one from a hidden compartment to her, “Coming?”

“You know, I soar at hundreds of metres.”

“And if you get thrown from JB you’ll be hitting the pavement before you know it.  Wear the damn helmet, angel-girl.”

She huffed but took it, dragging it over her damp auburn hair.  “You know, that’s derogatory.”

“Being compared of angels is derogatory?” Eggsy asked sceptically as the motorbike roared and lunged forward.  Her small arms wrapping around his waist and pressing the sheathed katanas into his back.

“Yeah.  Our stories about angels… well, they aren’t good.”

“Sorry, darling.  I’ll remember it.”

They slipped through the night in silence, the gathering storm pelting them with a fine mist but as they neared  _ The Black Prince _ the droplets grew before they were like ice shards striking their bodies.  Eggsy cast a narrow shield in front of the hellbike, the rain hitting it rather than them.

“Thank you!” Roxy shouted above the sounds of the rain sizzling on the barrier.  “So,” he continued as they slowed half a block away and ducked into a dark alley, “you’re half-Incubus.”

“Yeah,” he said as JB’s purr fell silent.

“And a sorcerer.”

“Yep.”  The sound of the ‘p’ popped in the quiet of the alley.

“And Magnus Bane is your soulmate?”

“No,” Eggsy murmured roughly as he swung off the machine and snuck toward the mouth of the alley, his jeans pulling tight over his legs as he knelt.  He felt Roxy crouch behind him. “My soulmates are hidden from me,” he offered as he watched the main road for signs of Mag and the boys. “Mag and I… well like I said, it’s complicated.”

“Soulmates?  As in two…” At his nod she continued, “that’s rare outside of my people.”

“Who knows, maybe my soulmates  _ are _ Nephilim.  Not like I got anyway of knowing.”

They fell into an awkward silence, maybe Roxy realised she was poking at wounds.  Eggsy wasn’t even half sure why he didn’t tell her to fuck off, to leave it be. ‘Cept something in him made him want to talk to her, to befriend her, and Eggsy was used to listening to his instincts.  He shifted the blades strapped to his back, settling them more comfortably.

“It must hurt,” she said softly, hand reaching out to rest on his forearm.

“Every fucking time,” he whispered as Magnus’ ridiculous limo pulled up outside  _ The Black Prince _ .  “Ain’t got much of a choice though, do I?  Starve or hurt. S’life for you.” He went to rise but her hand tugged him back.

She pulled him into a hug.  “Thank you, for everything.”

“Welcome, Rox.  Us half-breeds gotta stick together.

~~~

Eggsy and Roxanne slipped out of the alley and approached the limousine as the door swung open, Magnus’ long leg extending to the pavement before he rose from the shadowy interior like a king.

Brandon and Jamal were right on his heels, the werekynde spilling out and hugging Eggsy.  They’d been friends since he’d run from the Übbii. They’d fallen out for a bit in his twenties, just drifting apart as they transitioned from childhood to adulthood but a few years before had shown up at Kingsman and it were like no time had ever passed.  Got on like a house on fire, they did.

He was already turning, not expecting anyone else when Ryan stepped out and joined them.  

Ryan.

His heart was thundering in his chest as he reached out for the shapeshifter.

“No fucking way, bruv,” Eggsy said, awestruck.  “What’s it been, ten  _ fucking _ years?”

“Hey Eggs,” the man said sheepishly, maybe expecting a row.

“Goddamn,” Eggsy huffed.  “Well, get your ass over here.”  He hauled Ryan into a crushing hug, holding the man close.  

He and Ryan… they were brothers.  Met when his Da were still alive and the only person he knew besides Magnus that had any memories of the man.  When his Mum had hauled him off to the Übbii court they’d drifted apart but when he’d scarpered he’d shown up at Ryan’s and Ryan had screamed down his own father to give Eggsy a place.  ‘Course Ryan’s Da were a world class prick and they’d ended up on the streets together for a time.

Magnus had took them both in but, at eighteen Ryan had joined the marines and Eggsy… well they didn’t let no Übbii into the military, too distracting.  They’d written for a while but… well shite happened, yeah? Ryan had always mooned over Magnus and when Eggsy started rogering him he couldn’t find a way to tell his best friend.  One omission became two, became a whole life’s worth of stuff he couldn’t tell Ryan about.

They stopped writing.  Another regret in his life.

“You come back to visit or…?” Eggsy asked, putting just enough space between him and Ryan to look the man over.  He’d grown, gotten fit as fuck and muscled from head to toe. “You look good, bruv.”

“You keeping in shape too.  Anyways… It’s the magic, ain’t it?”

“Liar,” Eggsy teased, “ain’t a bit of glamour on you I would sense it.”

“Too fucking clever by half, Eggs.  And no, no visit. Didn’t renew. Shite getting too real with the Purifiers.  Came home to help. Stopped by Mag’s looking for you, he says you ain’t livin’ there no more.”

“No, bruv.  Not in years.  But I stop by.”

“You two,” Ryan’s eyes flickered to the warlock, that old heat still simmering in his green gaze, “still thick as thieves, yeah?”

“It’s a long story, bruv.  Happy to tell you but first…”

Ryan looked at the group and nodded his understanding.  “Got your back, Eggs. Just like old times.”

Eggsy clasped his shoulder before releasing his old friend.  “Mag and I will go in first,” Eggsy said as he went to the boot of the limo and popped it open, pulling out a sword for Ryan.  Guns tended to jam around Mag’s aura and the rest of them  _ were _ weapons but Ryan’s magic was more useful in infiltration.  “Rox has had a rough night, had to do some healing on her. Feel like playing bodyguard?”

“Whatever you need, bruv,” Ryan assured, taking the blade and strapping it to his back.

“We will endeavour,” Magnus cut in, having remained in the same spot throughout, “to convince Dean’s people to return it.  The Purifier and I have been at an uneasy peace for months now, I am loathe to end it. Eggsy, a word?”

Eggsy followed Magnus as few steps away from the group, letting the warlock tug him close enough to murmur in his ear.  “You are weakened. You should feed before we go in.”

“Not now, Mag.”

“You need the strength,  _ fik’ire _ .”

**_“No,”_ ** Eggsy hissed, jerking Magnus by the lapels.  He knew Mag was only trying to be sensible but,  _ fuck _ Ryan had just stumbled back in his life and one look at the man told Eggsy he was still carrying a torch like the Statue of Liberty.  Kissing Mag would’ve been like a slap in the face. He needed to  _ explain _ .

Mag took a step back, gently prying Eggsy’s hands away, the warlock’s face shuttered from showing his emotions.  “As you wish.”

Well if that didn’t make him feel twice the arse, sparing Ryan only to hurt Mag… again.

“Try and let me negotiate,  _ libi _ .”

“Yeah,” Eggsy agreed, stealing a hug.  He stood on his tiptoes so he could murmur in  _ amharic _ ,  _ “ _ _ Azinalehu, memihiri.” _

Magnus held him close, cupping the back of his neck.  Eggsy tried to relax into it even as frissons of pain radiated from the touch.  “Always forgiven,” Magnus returned, breath ghosting over Eggsy’s cheek before he pulled away.

As they entered The Black Prince, Eggsy followed Magnus, the warlock leading their ragtag group.  Ryan remained at Roxy’s side, the werekynde brothers flanking the pair. As soon as the door closed behind them, the conversation in the pub silenced.

The tension was choking as a few people moved away from Dean - at his usual table.  The human locked eyes with Magnus. “Lord Bane, to what do I owe the honour?”

Eggsy was reminded, in that moment, how Dean had amassed so much power.  The man was not nearly as dimwitted as he played at, remembered the old manners that kept him from being the target of blood feuds.

“Mr Baker,” Magnus said, giving a stiff, shallow bow.  “Some of your men attacked a Nephilim this evening and took something from her.  I would like it returned.”

“Now,” Baker said, pausing to down the rest of his pint, “my understanding she was in  _ my _ territory and your - ” the human took a significant pause in which the phrase ‘rent-boy’ hung heavily but was not said, “ - young man there, interfered.”

Eggsy took a half step forward, ready to defend himself when Magnus held up an elegant hand, the gold runes glittering in the greasy lighting.

“The girl was shot out of the  _ sky _ , certainly that is no one’s territory.”

Dean huffed but leaned away, conceding the point.  “You feel the need to bring guards to come ask me this?”

“How should I know whether they were under your orders, Mr Baker?  Perhaps a trap laid to disrupt the peace.”

“Too many good  _ men _ ,” Dean emphasised the word, “died the last time you and I locked horns.  Not eager to see it done again. But, what you’re askin’ for is a favour. Nephilim aren’t under your protection last I checked.”

“All impure bloods are, as you well know.”

“And this Nephilim is a half-breed?”

“I am,” Roxy interrupted, stepping forward.  “My mother was human.”

Dean sneered but didn’t respond.  “Poodle!” he shouted, the man in question appearing from the crowd.  “You take something off this little girl?”

Roxy shifted aggressively at the jibe muttering, “Could be as old as you…”

“Yeah, boss - “

“Give it back,” Dean bit.

“But - “

“You bring Bane to my door and you want to argue with me?  Return it.”

Poodle pulled two daggers off a table, striding across the room and holding the gleaming purple blades facing her, glaring at her before spinning them and handing them back.  As soon as Rox touched them they turned to purple smoke, the mist absorbing into her forearms. Poddle jumped back, startled.

“Fucking, mutt,” he growled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> praenomen - nickname, personal name  
> werekynde - lycanthrope  
> Übbii - race name for succubi and incubi  
> fik'ire - my love (Amharic)  
> libi - darling  
> Azinalehu, memihiri - I'm sorry, teacher (Amharic)


	3. Tell That Devil

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry for all this angst, babes!

As soon as they were back in Bane’s territory, Eggsy pulled JB to the kerb.  

“Can I borrow your calling mirror?  I should have contacted my uncles - “

The  _ whoosh _ of winged creatures landing cut her words off as two Nephilim dropped to the pavement followed quickly by a pair of imps.

Eggsy was off the bike in an instant, drawing the katanas strapped across his back and casting a hellfire spell over the enchanted metal.  Against Nephilim infernal flame would not be easy to heal.

The pair of men had already pulled their own weapons, the dark-winged one a giant claymore, the light-winged creature had a bow and arrow drawn and aimed at Eggsy.  The darker one only had eyes for Mag where the warlock had left the car and was standing near enough to protect his protege.

There was a moment of pregnant silence filled only by the hum of a warding spell that would keep others from stumbling onto the scene.  Eggsy took stock of the men. They were both of noble blood, Eggsy didn’t know much about Nephilim but the metallic glimmers of their wings gave that away.  The dark winged one wore armour, articulated leather plates fitted over his legs and chest. The other wore a dove grey cotton shirt, tight through his arms with leather bracers overtop.  His pants were perfectly tailored right down to his Victorian style boots.

“Magnus Bane,” the light Nephilim sneered.  His voice was melodic, like a siren’s song to Eggsy’s blood.  He was suddenly very,  _ very _ aroused.

“Harry Hart,” Magnus replied, calm as anything with his hands shoved deep in his pockets.  ‘Course Mag had never needed a weapon to kill. “And Prince Merlin. I would say it is good to see you, again.  But… it isn’t.”

“Uncles,” Roxy breathed, stepping between the two pairs of men with her arms spread in a warding gesture.  

The imps moved closer, wicked curved daggers drawn at the ready.  Eggsy couldn’t tell much about them - either sex or age - only that one was a greenish-grey hue, a little smaller in both stature and wingspan than the purple one.  The taller imp seemed more menacing with their pointed teeth bared, a wicked glimmer in their blood red vertical-slitted eyes.

Eggsy was glad he’d sent Jamal and Brandon home, only Ryan exiting the other side of the limo to add to the tension.

“Are you alright?” Harry asked, not lowering his weapon or looking away from his intended target.  Eggsy could see the eerie blue of angel fire dancing along the arrowhead.

“Yes,” she sighed, “I was attacked by Purifiers but they helped me,  _ he, _ ” Roxy indicated with a jerk of her hand toward Eggsy, “healed me and helped me retrieve my blades.  Magnus too.”

The light Nephilim's eyes flicked to the warlock doubtfully.

“I would suggest,  _ mela’ikiti _ ,” Magnus sneered, the Nephilim returning it at being called ‘angels’, “that you lower your weapons.”

“Why should we  _ cnila amma _ ?” Merlin spat, voice rolling out in a brogue that sent shivers down Eggsy’s spine and desire thundering through his veins.  

The warlock growled, baring his teeth menacingly as he called his magic, the power making the golden runes on his skin glimmer menacingly as eddies of power swirled up his arms.  “Mind your tongue, princeling, lest I cut it out for you.”

A hot sulfuric wind gusted down the road, lights both magical and mundane flickering out.  They were suddenly plunged into darkness, only the illumination cast by the hellfire, angel fire and Magnus’ magic piercing the darkness.

“Give way, murderer,” Merlin demanded, pushing his will against Magnus’ magic, making the air in the area thick and difficult to breathe.

“Die slowly, angel-boy,” Magnus returned, forcing yet more power into the space.

“Enough,” Eggsy gasped, shaking his head to clear the sudden wash of power that sent a disturbing arousal skittering through him.  The men were fit as fuck but it shouldn’t make his Incubus blood roar with hunger like he’d never fed the need for sex in his entire life.  His hands trembled, suddenly weak and aching to touch.

He spun the blades, banishing the hellfire and sheathing them.

“Mag, recall your spell.  I don’t know who these men are to you but, tonight, they aren’t your enemies.”

_ “Fik’ire _ ,” the warlock breathed then winced at the endearment.  Both Nephilim sneered, Merlin hissing with outrage but before they could speak, Magnus cursed, “Fuck,” voice thick with something like fear.  Eggsy had never heard Magnus afraid. He retracted his spell, lights sparking back in their housings.

“Mag - “ Ryan said gently, voice urging, “is this them?”

“Shut up, shifter.”

“Mag - “  Ryan heaved a deep breath, eyes pleading with the warlock.  “Come on, bruv. You should have told him ten years ago…”

Magnus voiced a warning, throat growling out, “Silence.”

“No, Mag.  It’s time. Tell him the fucking truth!”

Magnus was trembling as Eggsy asked, “What truth?”

“Please, Eggsy, don’t ask this of me.”

“What  _ truth _ , Magnus Bane?!” Eggsy voiced cracked through the night with the power of a true name spoken, the words laced with magic to make it connect to something in Mag’s soul.

The warlock went crashing to the pavement, knees colliding as he sagged.  “Forgive me, Lee,” he whimpered to no one.

“Do  _ not _ ,” Merlin growled, blade still menacing in his hand, “say his name.  Not after what ye did.”

“What I did?” Magnus sneered.  “What I  _ did _ ?  Did you ever  _ wonder _ , O! Prince, why I didn’t bond with my  _ soulmate _ ?”

“You wanted to keep yer power.  Demons cannae have soulmates.  You would have become human.  Fully human.”

Magnus chuckled but there was no humour there as he watched in desolation the clasping and unclasping of his dark hands.  “You would believe that of me.”

“Why else seal your magics with metal poured into yer skin?”

“So I could save him!” Magnus roared, launching to his feet.  “So I could pluck his soul back after the spell that killed him!  He made me - “ Tears poured down the warlock’s face. Eggsy’s heart thudded in terror, he’d never seen Mag lose it but Mag was  _ definitely _ losing it.  “I made a blood oath to Lee Unwin to protect his son at whatever the cost.  Even my soulbond. Even his  _ life _ .”

“Lee Unwin had no son,” Harry said defiantly, tilting up his chin but there was uncertainty in his eyes.

“Oh,” Mag said around a rough swallow, “he had a son.   _ Has _ a son.  The most precious thing in this world…”

“Why did I need protecting, Mag?” Eggsy asked gently, turning the warlock to face him as Merlin finally vanished his blade.  Both Nephilim's eyes raked over him, no doubt looking for whatever bits of Lee they could find in his appearance.

His mentor, his teacher pulled him close by the biceps, tipping their foreheads together.  It didn’t hurt, as if Eggsy’s body knew they would never share a bed again. “You’ll hate me,  _ libi _ .  After this moment… you’ll never feel anything but hate and I cannot…  You are the last part of him in this world…”

“Mag, please - “

The warlock trembled and sobbed as he confessed, “I’ve always known who your soulmates were.”

He sucked in a quavering breath, stumbling back from the Magnus’ embrace.   _ “No.” _

“You were born with your soulmark.  A mark both I and your father had seen before.”

“So you… what?”

“He didn’t want you in their war.  He was giving his life to end one.  He didn't want you to fall in another.  You see... your father could see glimpses of the future.  He didn’t want you to know until you were ready.”

“Know,  _ what _ ?  What are you saying?”

Mag locked eyes with Merlin, something hopeless in his gaze as he murmured, “A hawk for valour, an owl for wisdom, a kestrel for wit and agility.  Lee never told you about his son because the second you touched the boy you’d know he was yours.”

_ “You’re _ Lee’s son?” Merlin breathed.

“I am Lee’s son,” Eggsy managed.  He must have sounded as shattered to them as he did to himself ‘cause the Nephilim darted a worried looks his way but did not move to close the space between them.  The depth of Magnus’ betrayal - of Ryan’s - crashed over him at once, rage drawing the guttering remnants of energy up from the depleted chasm of his body. “You  _ knew _ ,” he began with the shifter he’d called a friend.

“I’m sorry Eggs, I - “ Ryan stammered.

“How long?”

“Eggs, I - “

“How. Fucking. Long?”

“Right before I signed up.  Couldn’t keep it from you and I’d promised.  Mag said a few more years until he found out if you presented with your Incubus powers.  Fifty-fifty chance, yeah? Half chance you’d be all human and not have to feed.”

“So fucking me,” Eggsy raged, rounding on Magnus, “that wasn’t part of the plan?  But having a somewhat what looked like Lee addicted to sex and gagging for it...?  Just fucking  _ convenient _ having a boy what looked like your soulmate to put your dick in?”

_ “Fik’ire,” _ Magnus whimpered, reaching for him but Eggsy smacked his hand aside and wrapped his fingers around Magnus Bane’s throat.  

“Don’t call me that,” he growled through bared teeth.  “You don’t ever get to fucking call me that again. You tell my dad you were gonna use me as your little rent-boy?  Get his fucking permission for that too, ‘fore he died?”

“Eggsy,” Harry said gently, extending a welcoming hand, “come with us.  We will keep you safe from him. No matter what he’s done. You’re better than staining your hands with his blood.”

Eggsy sobbed, pushing Magnus away.  The warlock stumbled before sprawling out along the pavement.  Oh, how he wanted. Wanted to be safe, to be loved for himself and not ‘cause of some fucking loyalty to Lee.

“They didn’t look for you,” Magnus croaked, rubbing at his throat.  His voice was sad, sullen. “That’s why I didn’t tell you. I blocked your scry for them but they are  _ powerful _ Eggsy.  If they’d looked for you, even once, they would have known who was keeping them from their soulmate.  There are only three people in the entire city who could seal your soulbond away from their magics and only one with any interest to do so.  They would have broken down my door if they wanted you.”

“You bastard,” Eggsy wept, looking at his former teacher… his former friend.  “Just have to fucking twist the knife.” The mage swallowed and steadied himself before he turned tear-filled eyes to the winged-men.  “It’s true, ain’t it?”

Merlin shuddered but met his eyes.  “Aye, lad. It’s true.”

“Eggsy, please - “ Harry began.

Eggsy cut him off.  “Fuck you all.”

He scrambled across JB’s seat and jammed the helmet on his head, ignoring their pleas as he bent low over the handles.  “Take me somewhere safe, ducky.”

With a roar, the demoncycle and his master roared off into the night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> mela’ikiti - angels (Amharic)  
> cnila amma - blood cursed (Enochian)  
> fik'ire - my love (Amharic)  
> libi - darling


	4. Duality

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lots of backstory in this chapter but the next one is smuuuuuut!

Roxy felt anxiety ride her as Eggsy drove off into the night.  Not that she blamed him, poor guy had just had his entire world upended.  She just felt bad for herself because she was pretty sure his presence was the only thing keeping her uncles from slaughtering Magnus Bane.

Without waiting for them to go for each other’s throats she launched herself between them once more.  

“Get him out of here,” she hissed to Ryan, jerking her head toward Magnus as he tried to stand on trembling legs.  “Merlin - “ Roxy shouted as the Nephilim drew his blade once more, “think about this, uncle.”

“He touched my mate.  He kept my mate from me.”

“You did that to yourself you fool man.”

Merlin growled, the sound both anguish and rage.

“Please,” she pleaded as he pressed forward into her space but she did not give way.  “Eggsy will not forgive you for killing him.”

“I don’t - “

“Husband - “ Harry warned, their eyes following his gaze as two more Nephilim dropped into the wide road.  Thank the ancestors the warding spell had held through their little display, the last thing the situation needed was innocent bystanders wandering in.

Her heart thundered in her chest as she recognised the men who joined them, tears of relief flooding her eyes.  The soulmark on her chest thrummed in welcome.

Her mates, James Knight and Percival Blood landed on either side of her gracefully.  James flashed her a happy grin before he darted toward the warlock and hauled him up.  “Stupid, stupid…”

“James, I - “

“You should have told them  _ years _ ago.  I warned you, demon.”

“It was my choice to make,” Magnus hissed.

“Yes, and the rest of us have to deal with the fallout.  Where would he go, Magnus? Back to his mother? The  Übbii court is no place for him.”

Magnus shuddered at the thought.  “I don’t… I don’t know…”

“James?” Roxy asked softly, cutting through the argument.  She, of course, knew both her mates were many decades older than her and they had not had enough time together for her to learn all there was to know about their pasts.  But, based on the bald shock on Harry and Merlin’s faces they didn’t know what was going on either. She wanted an explanation.

“Baby girl,” James replied softly, not releasing his grip on Magnus’ biceps.  Still, his ash grey wings fluttered when she spoke his name, the opalescent glimmers of his dark grey coverts glittering in the orange light of the mundane lamps and green glow of the magical street lights.

“What’s going on?”

“It’s a long story, my heart,” Percival answered, the black and dark grey of his falcon wings swooping around her as if to shelter her from a blow.  She reached out, carding her fingers along the soft underside. Percival’s wings shivered at the long denied touch, the copper tones of his noble lineage like will o’ the wisps dancing in shadow.

“One you will tell,” Merlin growled from somewhere beyond the drape of Percival’s wings.

“Yes, my prince,” the dark Nephilim replied solemnly.  “But not here. Husband,” he said to James, “let the warlock go.  We have much to discuss.”

James growled, baring his teeth to Magnus before pushing him toward Ryan.  “You and I will speak of this later, old friend. Expect me.”

Magnus reached out and palmed James’ neck in a familiar gesture, tilting their foreheads together.  “I’m sorry, James.”

“As am I.  I know you care for him.”

Merlin growled out another warning and James released the warlock.  

None of them watched and Magnus and Ryan piled into the limo and pulled away, her mates dropping to one knee and clasping their right hands of their hearts.  “My prince,” they greeted in unison before inclining their heads toward Harry. 

“And beloved mate,” Percival added.

“Rise,” Merlin commanded, “we are too exposed here.  Mgga, Dzrat,” the imps snapped to attention. “Glide ahead, we will follow.”

They moved immediately to obey, climbing up the nearby fire ladder to get enough height to catch an eddy since they could not launch from the ground

Roxy called her wings but the sudden sharp pain reminded her they had not been fully healed.  “I cannot fly,” she admitted, the four men turning sharply toward her.

Harry twitched his head, looking her over for injuries.

“Eggsy mended me but didn’t complete it.”

“I will - “ Harry began but James cut him off.

“Prince Consort, I will heal my own mate,” James said gently, but firmly.  Drawing oil from his gland, he pressed his sword calloused fingers to her lips.  His other arm snaked around her waist, pulling her tightly into the circle of his arms as she sucked the spicy liquid, feeling the thrum of his healing powers.

“Baby girl,” he murmured against her temple, breathing in the scent of her as the warmth of his wings surrounded hers, caressing his grey feathers over her bright red and orange hawk wings.  “We felt your hurt. I regret only that we could not leave the city fast enough. We should not be so far away.”

“It was Purifiers, James.  Not assassins.”

“They hurt you just the same.  I - “

“Husband,” Percival said impatiently, drawing them apart.  He gave a short bow to Roxy. “Forgive me, my heart.”

“Forgiven,  _ cammae _ ,” Roxy replied automatically.

“All better?” James asked, fingers lingering on her.  At her nod, Harry launched into the air, magic aiding the powerful launch of his legs.  She followed quickly, running up the bricks in a nearby alley and jumping expertly between the walls until she reached the roof before diving off the edge.  She felt her mates at her heels as Merlin took up the rear. Ahead Mgga and Dzrat danced about each other on the wind.

She felt a rush of euphoria through the bond.  They had only flown together twice before, the day her parents recognised their soulmarks as matching hers.  She’d been young then - a girl on the cusp of womanhood - and they’d held her in their arms taking her higher into the clouds than her small wings could have carried her.  She’d been innocent and they, mindful of her youth, the perfect gentlemen despite looking at their future wife.

The only other time had been the night of their mating, the two men sneaking away from the City of Light and Shadow to consummate their union.  They’d chased her through London, Percival’s shadow spell hiding them from prying eyes as they tried to keep up with her lighter, faster frame. She’d become a woman without them, hidden from her own kind after her parents’ deaths.  Roxy had chosen to go into exile without them, to let Percival and Lancelot keep their bond hidden so that they might spy for Merlin against the king.

She may have chosen differently if she’d known how lonely she’d be without her mates beside her.  How many nights had she lain awake, terrified that they would choose another? Crying herself to sleep believing, in her foolishness, that they would not wait?

Yet, when they’d come for her on the night of her twenty-fifth birthday there had been nothing but love in their eyes.  Gone was the girl they knew as theirs. Despite the occasional conversation through a mirror call, they seemingly had not been prepared for how much she’d grown.  Lust cut through the three of them as they launched into the air, years of her fantasies culminating in the ancient flight ritual. She could still remember their adoring eyes as she giggled and rolled away from them, making them conquer her in their mating dance rather than letting them catch her easily.

Roxy was a warrior, though untested in battle, and proud.  She’d made them work hard to capture her, the two men moving together as only those who’d seen battle together could as she flew higher and higher until her lungs screamed in the thin air.  Eventually, she tipped downward in a suicide dive, eyes closed as she phased her wings away leaving herself helpless in the freefall. They moved with her, rushing ahead and wrapping themselves around her, their wings spiralling as they pulled her up into their arms.

Her heart was pounding with adrenaline and love when they landed.

When they finally claimed her body, it was standing on the balcony of her Uncles’ flat.  Both men held her pinned between them, her naked body wrapped in their arms as they stood. Wings caressing and hands adoring, they had welcomed her into womanhood with mouth and tongues and teeth.

In the morning they were gone.

She’d wept for a month.

Now they were back, but it was bittersweet.  She could not keep them nor return with them.  If the King knew they had a half-breed for a mate he would never trust them again.  She wouldn’t put it past the King to have them killed like, she suspected, he’d done for her parents and grandparents.

As if sensing her thoughts - and perhaps he did - Percival flew in tight,  tucking his larger wingspan above hers and wrapped his arms around her waist.  There was an awkward moment when the air current struggled to pass between them before redirecting over them as a unit.  Roxy tucked her small wings in close and let Percival hold her weight.

“You think dark thoughts, my heart,” he murmured in her ear, sending skittering desire down her spine.  After a single night in their arms, her own hand paled in comparison.

She whimpered, “I’ve missed you.”

“And I, you,” he breathed, lips dragging over the sensitive spot under her ear.  “More each second.”

“You have each other,” she muttered, hating how petulant… how childish she sounded.

“Yes,” he agreed sedately, Percival rarely rose to the bait, “but we are incomplete without you.”

“I can… Sometimes, I can sense it when you have sex.”

Percival stiffened for a moment before relaxing around her, banking with the group as they skirted mundane districts where Purifiers were more likely to attack.  “I apologise. It seems my telepathic abilities are seeping through the bond. I did not know.”

“I like it,” she confessed.  “And I hate it.” She dashed away the foolish tears, hadn’t she cried enough?  “I want to be with you but… if it stopped I’d hate it even more. At least it is  _ something _ .”

He squeezed her tightly, offering what comfort he could.

“Should I expect them to fight?”

“Merlin and James?”

She nodded.

“Yes, my heart, you should.  Our mate was bound by a blood oath until Magnus severed it this evening.  I was surprised to learn the secrets he’s been keeping.”

“How do you know Eggsy?”

Percival heaved a heavy breath.  “It is not mine to tell, beloved.”

“I’m tired of secrets,” she sighed, thinking only half of Eggsy.  She’d only met the half-breed Incubus that day and yet… she felt drawn to him.  Maybe it was his soulbond, the familial connection bringing them close or, perhaps it was something more.  Lee had been drawn into her family in much the same way. The magics of old could be as mysterious as the histories of the fae.  “He didn’t deserve that.”

“No, he didn’t.”

As the tower of flats came into view, Mgga and Dzrat were already dropping onto the marble balcony, Roxy peeled away from her mate so they might land properly.

She came in too close on Harry so, instead of landing she swooped away, feeling James break away and follow her.  She rounded the wide tower of flats that her uncles owned, renting mostly to magical beings or those who liked the prestige of being near them.  But, the top three floors belonged entirely to her family. It was opulent, if lonely. 

She dropped down lightly onto the balcony, the others having already drifted inside as James alighted next to her.  His wings were already swirling to a grey mist, like storm clouds and crackling with lightning, transforming into a tattoo as he brushed past her.  His fingers brushed along hers before he disappeared into the training room.

She paused, breathing in the early morning air as the eastern sky started to lighten.

It had been a long night, starting with her near death and she felt the anxiety of an argument waiting to break open crackling in her veins.  She wanted to close her eyes, to take her mates to bed and enjoy a few moments of comfort before they left again.

By the time she wandered into the bottom floor of their home, the training room was empty.  She moved over the soft mats silently, weapons both sharp for battle and dull for practice lining the walls.  The bars of the gymnastics equipment looked sinister in the near dark of the room but Roxy didn’t bother to waken the magical lights, she could have found her way to the stairs leading upward even if she was missing all her senses and half dead.

She slipped into the longue, the fireplace crackling but it didn’t feel homey as her mates knelt before her uncles in surrender.  Merlin leaned heavily on the mantle, staring into the flames while Harry faced James and Percival staring down at the kneeling men.  

Mgga and Dzrat were nowhere to be seen.  They didn’t like to involve themselves with Nephilim politics.  They served her uncles, needed no purpose beyond their devotion.  Well, Mgga needed no purpose beyond her devotion. Dzrat was motivated by a youthful excitement to see the world, to be useful and to protect his twin sister.

The room was large, floor to ceiling windows overlooking the city along one wall.  Low, squashy couches made a little half circle around the men but much of the room was bare leaving it to echo hollowly.  The main doors glimmered in a faint sealing spell, beyond, the elevator leading to the building’s lobby. Her uncles slept above on the upper floor but her room was beyond the lounge in her own private corner tucked next to her little library.

“...swore a blood oath to Lee,” James explained, unusually solemn.  Usually, he was nothing but mischief, wide grins and teasing jibes.

“It seems a night of blood oaths,” Merlin sighed.  Clearly, the anger she’d seen before had gone out of the Prince, leaving a weary sort of sadness.  “How many swore their lives, their loyalties to hide Lee Unwin’s son?”

James shook his head.  “That was not the original nature of the oath.  He’d had visions of his mate, long before Magnus found him.  Lee knew he bore demon’s blood. He feared Magnus would use the bond to subjugate him, to force him to cast curses.  I was to intercede.”

“And after?” Harry asked, anger still hard on his features.  

That did not surprise Roxanne.  Harry could never be angry at Merlin for more than a passing moment but James, no doubt the man was on the receiving end of displeasure he did not deserve.  Harry was, perhaps, the most innocent of all of them save Roxy herself. He’d always wanted to find Eggsy and his obedience to his husband and Prince had brought only sadness.

Her heart ached for him and hoped they would find a way to reach out, to mend it.

“Eggsy was  _ born _ with his soulmark.  That is… incredibly rare as you well know.  At first, it meant nothing but when I met his son, I recognised the mark.  How could I not? The uncles of my future wife? They hadn’t recognised our claim yet but it was a matter of time.

“I told him.  I thought he would be happy.”  James sighed deeply, dropping to both knees as his shoulders sagged.

“That’s when it started…  he was assaulted with visions of his son’s death.  Magnus was beside himself trying to find a way to save Lee but Lee knew… if he survived, his son would not. And you…  _allananae_ how he loved you both.  Called you brothers.  But,  Chester had stolen the throne by then and every assassin that would take the contract was looking for you.  What would you have done if your young, helpless soulmate became a target? Would you turn yourself over to be executed?”

“Yes,” Merlin said without hesitating.  “Especially for Lee’s son but yes, I would have.”

“Exactly,” James heaved, tears starting to slip from his eyes.  “He wanted to protect his friends and his son.  He knew by then that he was going to die and Michelle… succubi aren’t really fit mothers.  Yes, it was a night of ill-advised pleasure but he  _ never _ regretted his son’s birth.  We were friends, my Prince, and he was so frightened.  Weeping every night."

Merlin turned and reached out, Roxy sighing with relief when the Prince dragged her husband into his arms and held him through his tears.  “He was so proud,” James continued as Percival stood near, hand clasped over his lover’s bicep giving comfort. Roxy wanted to join them but hesitated to remind the men of her presence.  It wouldn’t have been the first time she was sent away. “He was so  _ happy _ you were his son’s soulmates.  He wanted you to know… I promised I would tell you… He trusted you to protect Eggsy.  For us all to protect him.”

“Then why, James?” Harry murmured, anger giving way to pain.  “Why wait so long?”

“Magnus… after everything that happened he didn’t trust you anymore, he wouldn’t listen to me and I think… I think he was a little in love with Eggsy.  It’s not right, I’m not saying it was right but…”

Percival took over as James trembled with emotion.  “Magnus was the oathkeeper. James the key. He was bound by the spell to keep the secret until Mag broke the oath.”

“He was supposed to if the boy came into his Incubus powers.  Lee foresaw how painful being a Übbii and soulbound would be. I don’t know  _ why _ he didn’t.  I’d been stuck in the City of Light and Shadow but when I discovered I begged him to break the oath, to tell Eggsy the truth.  He refused. I don’t know - “

“It’s my fault,” Harry said suddenly.  “When Lee died I said terrible things to him.  I all but accused him of murdering Lee, of failing his soulmate.  I didn’t know… I didn’t…”

“Lee was the best of us,” Percival soothed, settling his free hand on Harry’s shoulder.  “We fell apart without him.”

“What do we do now?” James asked.

“May I - “ Roxy finally spoke up, the four men jumping at the sound of her voice.  So, they had forgotten about her. “Eggsy’s missing and that isn’t good for anyone.  Make peace with Magnus.”

Merlin growled at the idea but settled when Harry smoothed a hand down his spine.

“Figure out where he might have gone.  Find him and then fucking  _ grovel _ .  You two fucked up by not looking for him but I don’t think he knows much about our kind.  I was watching him while you two were facing off with Bane and there was no recognition of your names.  If he knew why you didn’t look… it was kind of the same reasons Lee hid him. Chester will go after your soulmate in an instant and he  _ knows _ you have one out there.  I wouldn't put it past him to be looking regularly.  Now that the oath is broken Eggsy is vulnerable.”

Percival chuckled, “Your niece is wise.”

“As is your mate,” Merlin returned.

“Mgga!  Dzrat!” Harry called, moving away from the group as the imps clattered down the steps from the floor above.  Merlin followed and Roxy took the chance to pull James into her arms.

The man sniffled as he buried his face in her hair.

Her heart clenched as she asked, “When will you go back?”

“I don’t - “

“They won’t,” Merlin answered for them.  “You left the city too quickly tonight and if you went back… your lives might be forfeit.  You’ve done enough. Time to join your mate, make her your wife.”

“Uncle - “ Roxy breathed, not daring to hope.

James’ arms clenched tightly around her.  “Are you certain, Prince? I will endure any danger to keep Chester from this family.”

“War is coming,” Merlin answered ominously.  “We will need you here.”

“Are we done for the night?” Percival asked levelly, but Roxy could read his anticipation in the lines of his body.

“Aye,” Merlin said, grinning, “get some sleep if ye dare her displeasure.  We will need ye on the morrow.”

"I will approach Magnus for you," James said, clasping Merlin's hand.

Merlin exchanged a look with Harry before saying, "Thank ye, we'd like that."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> cammae - part of me (Enochian)  
> allananae - fuck (Enochian)


	5. A Smaller God

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Beware the changes in the tags! I've decided the Übbii are an intersex species!

JB drove through the city for three hours while Eggsy barely had his hands on the handles, letting the beast sail through the growing early morning traffic.  The demon cycle growled in agitation as it pulled back out of an alley, clearly not finding it ‘safe’ enough.

“It’s ok, ducky,” Eggsy soothed the spirit’s aggressive roar, frustration building as it was unable to follow its master’s commands.  “I don’t know where I’d be safe either. Let’s go down by the river.”

Seemingly pleased to have a command it could obey, JB purred as it pulled back out into traffic.

The night’s drizzle had let up with the sunrise but to Eggsy it didn’t much matter, he was soaked through and shivering.  Both his human body and his Incubus spirit were demanding sustenance that he was too upset to give. The thought of food made him nauseous, the thought of being touched angry.

“Fuck,” he choked as tears threatened once more.

JB made a quizzical sound, the sensation of worried thoughts pressing against his own.

“Just real fucking mad, duck.”

JB growled in agreement before giving him a mental prod, the hellhound’s equivalent of a cold nose nudging in for a cuddle, it was sweet.

“And hurt,” Eggsy continued as he hugged the machine beneath him.  The bike levitated out over the pebbled beach, landing gently on the banks without so much as a jostle.  The wind picked up, cutting through Eggsy’s cold limbs. He slipped from the seat down to the stony ground, pain settling deep into his bones.  He was too weak to even cast a warming spell.

The bike shimmied close, jumping oddly from tyre to tyre until it was pressed up against Eggsy’s back.  Warmth suffused through him, the air turning sulfuric as JB radiated heat.

“Thanks, duck.”

The cycle purred happily.

“Gotta make some fucking choices ain’t I?” Eggsy huffed, dropping his face into his hands.  “Devil I know or the devils I don’t? Could always go back to Mum.”

JB made a displeased growl.

“Yeah I know, ain’t a fucking choice and it still don’t deal with the whole... “ Eggsy vaguely gestured to himself, “bound to two men what ain’t want me.”

It was the demon cycle’s predatory growl that drew Eggsy from his thoughts to realise something was stalking him.  He didn’t dare look around but his instincts were screaming at him if he’d been a little less hungry and a little more with it he probably would’ve noticed them before it felt like they were right on top of him.

He moved quickly, rolling up to his knees while drawing out his katanas.  One was steel, the bladed edge plated with pure iron to be effective against fae.  The other was plated silver to injure werekynde and vampires. He used the guttering remains of his magic to summon hellfire, the flames glittering along the metals as the blades turned red hot.  It was that fire that revealed the Nephilim only an arm's length away, dagger drawn and black wings flared outward.

The man stumbled back from Eggsy’s blades, surprise on the Nephilim's face when Eggy could track the movements.

“What do you want?” Eggsy croaked, JB rearing back on his tyre and revving.

“Tell me where to find the Prince and his consort and I will leave you be, Incubus.”

“Not fucking likely.”

“You have no loyalty to them,” the Nephilim reasoned, “why would you forfeit your life?”

“You’re assuming you could take me.”

“You’re weakened, little half-breed.  And I am Nephilim of Clan Bone.”

Eggsy lunged before the Nephilim he could prepare, spinning the blades toward the man.  The would-be assassin stumbled back before catching himself, defending. But, Eggsy caught the edge of a wing.  Hellfire set the feathers ablaze, the air filling with the scent of burnt hair and flesh.

“I was willing to let you live, Incubus.  I didn’t have to be so gracious.”

Eggsy snorted, parrying against the forward lunge of his dagger as he swept it away, the tip catching Eggsy by the ribs.  JB roared aggressively, driving straight for the Nephilim when Eggsy pushed him away. He jumped over the motorbike, landing hard on his feet.

Eggsy felt the prickle of the toxin as it seeped into his veins.  “Poisoned blades? Could you be any more of a stereotype?” He sheathed the iron blade, palming the wound with his free hand.  “See, if you were any kind of smart you might have done your research. Might have learned a thing or two about me ‘fore you came looking to use me to go after my soulmates.”

“Oh?  And what would I have learned?  That you have a big mouth?”

Eggsy chuckled, “Nah, bruv.  That wouldn’t have kept you alive.  No, what you would have learned is I did a little favour a while back, any fae with half a brain knows not to come at me on water’s edge.”

“Are you going to splash me?” the Nephilim spat.

Eggsy stepped back into the water once then twice until the icy current was swirling around his knees.  He held his hand to the side, squeezing his fist until a drop of blood touched the liquid eddies.

“I call to you,” Eggsy said, infusing his words with a thread of power, about all he could manage, “Lady Siobhan of the Deep Waters.”

The river started to lash as if a powerful storm were kicking up but the sky remained a passive grey, the Nephilim stumbled back trying to put a bit of distance between himself and the river.

Two kelpies, black horses with viciously sharp teeth and seaweed woven in their manes lunged at the man.  One bit viciously into his wing, a choked cry splitting the air as it snapped the bone another grabbing him by the leg.  They dragged him back toward the water, ripping chunks of his flesh away before pulling him under. The river frothed a bloody red as the morning went still one more, the cries cut off as quickly as they’d began.

It was a moment later when what looked like a unicorn popped its head from under the waves, its shimmering white body and luminous blue eyes near mesmerising.

_ “We have heard you,” _ the kelpie’s thoughts projected directly into his mind,  _ “Eggsy Unwin, brethren.  The man is dispatched.” _

“The debt between us is cleared,” Eggsy said with a formal bow.

_ “I am no sidhe to bargain or keep ledgers, half-blooded.  You saved our beloved daughter, that is a debt never satisfied.  Call whenever you have need, young prince.” _

He quirked his head at the term ‘prince’ but fae were strange and he wasn’t about to barter for knowledge she may or may not have.  “A kindness,” he bowed again, “Queen of the Deep.”

With a neigh that Eggsy thought might have been her laughing at him, she dived below the waters.  

He hauled himself out of the water, the poison making weakness thread through his veins.  It was probably not fatal, just something to weaken him in battle. He leaned heavily over the bike, absorbing JB’s heat as he asked, “Think you can track the Nephilim we met last night?”

The hellhound made a doubtful sound.

“‘Course not, ‘cause they probably flew.  Shit.”

Eggsy rummaged in his bags until he found his calling mirror.  ‘He didn’t know their true names, even if what Mag had called them was their names and not a nickname like most people used he hadn’t threaded it with the magic of a true name.  He could call for them… or Harry ‘cause Eggsy was pretty sure “Prince Merlin” wouldn’t get him  _ shite _ .  Fifty-fifty chance without the power of a true name heard and spoken it didn’t go to anyone and if they were trying to hide from him?  Zero chance.

Eggsy knew they didn’t want him… maybe he should just call Mag.

Except he was more angry with Magnus than anyone.

“Decision time, Unwin,” he growled at himself, drawing more blood away from the wound.  Smearing it on the bottom of the mirror he whispered, “Harry Hart,” and prayed.

~~~

Harry could not sleep, his worry for Eggsy outweighing his exhaustion.  Yet he could not leave Merlin even as the Prince slept fitfully. His husband, at least, had learned the way of sleeping during difficult times.  Perhaps it was Harry’s gift for empathy, but he’d never been able to shut off his mind.

Instead, he tucked himself into the mirror room, little more than a large closet, three sides of the room had floor to ceiling mirrors.  They would be an endless vision of him, draped over the chair that was somewhat throne-like without being tasteless if it weren’t for the velvet curtains kept over them when not in use.

He tried to focus on the book in his hand but found, yet again, he could not.

Harry longed for word from Dzrat or Mgga that they had some news, that they had found some trail.  Yet, James had warned him that the young man was an accomplished sorcerer. If he did not wish to be found, would they ever see him again?

A sound chimed through and Harry was on his feet before he realised it was one he didn’t recognise.  It sounded like a bird’s song, or maybe a wind flute… it was hard to be certain but the sound was both unfamiliar and known.

He didn’t even consider the consequences as he pushed aside the drapes on one of the mirrors and pressed his hand to it.  “Speak,” he breathed against the glass.

Eggsy’s ashen face filtered through right at eye level, the rest of the glass occluded enough to tell Harry he was using a small calling mirror.

“Eggsy,” he sighed, tilting his forehead against the glass as if he might touch the boy, “are you harmed?”

“Tell me you didn’t send a dark Nephilim to kill me.”

Harry reeled back, shocked, “Of course not!”  Then, realising what Eggsy had said, “Did they hurt you?”

“Not near as much as I hurt them.”

“You’re wounded.”

“Yeah,” Eggsy said ruefully, clearly he didn’t like admitting it, “was weak when he found me but... yeah.  He was using poisoned blades.”

“Tell me where you are.  I will come for you.”

There was something in the young man’s eyes, a glimmer of hope.

“Yeah, alright but just you.  I ain’t comfortable with another family reunion.”

“Whatever you desire.”

Eggsy held the mirror up, showing the street he was on before up at a restaurant sign.  “Gonna be in there. Busy enough, should keep me safe if any more come looking.”

“I’m on my way.”

Harry paused only long enough to jot a quick message to Merlin before he lept off the balcony, the wind carrying him aloft and across the air above London.  It wasn’t long before he was swooping lower and dropping onto a nearby roof. He phased his wings away as he made it to the street.

A familiar demon cycle was parked on the kerb and growled happily as Harry past.  He reached out and brushed the hellhound’s sealing rune, earning another joyful purr.

Ducking into the cafe, his eyes were immediately drawn to Eggsy, sitting in the back corner where he could watch everyone who came and went.  The boy looked beautiful and awful... drawn and sallow.

Harry tucked himself into the booth.  They stared at each other for a long time, Harry trying to memorise features that already tugged at his heart even as they were largely unfamiliar.  Yet, he could see Lee in the boy and it made him ache for his lost friend.

“Hello,” Harry finally managed past the lump of emotions in his throat.

“Hi,” Eggsy returned, the barest of smiles tugging at his lips.  Yet, it was something.

“May I touch you?”

Eggsy swallowed before nodding.

Harry went slowly, giving the young man time to rescind permission before he clutched the hand on the table.  “Eggsy I’m so… so sorry we didn’t look for you,” Harry murmured, eyes unwilling to look away from where they touched.

“It’s ok.  You got your soulmate.  I ain’t anyone’s idea of a prize.”

His head snapped up so quickly the room swam a little, reminding Harry he hadn’t eaten or slept in over a day.  “You cannot possibly believe - “ Harry stammered, then tried again. “We want you, Eggsy. I swear we do.”

“Don’t - “ Eggsy choked, pulling his hand away.  “I ain’t asking anything of you. Just don’t… don’t lie to me.  I’ve had it to my neck with lies.”

“I won’t,” Harry vowed, “I’m not.  I will make any vow you wish.”

Eggsy sighed, leaning back but aborted the movement halfway, freezing as he clutched his side.  

“May I heal you, Eggsy?  Please?”

“Yeah,” he grunted, “not here though, yeah?  Maybe a bit of privacy?”

Harry nodded, offering his hand as he slipped from the booth.  Eggsy made Harry go first, not trusting enough to let Harry guard his back.

Harry wondered how the boy grew up that he guarded himself instinctually.  Much the same way Harry had been raised despite his privilege, he supposed.  Soulmate, indeed.

The moment he stepped outside, Harry felt the shiver at the edge of his awareness of his mate approaching.  “Eggsy,” Harry said softly, catching the half-blood by the leather-clad elbow, “I apologise but we will not be alone much longer.  My mate is coming.”

Eggsy looked up, scanning the rooftops and the sky before meeting Harry’s eyes again.  “He follow you?”

“It would seem so.  My apologies.”

“S’ok.  Just him though?  Ain’t gonna have an army following?”

Harry managed a small smile.  “I can’t be certain, perhaps the imps followed him.  If so, I will send them away.”

Eggsy nodded, going to take a step back before swaying.  Harry swooped in, wings coming out instinctually in preparation to take to the skies.  He swept them around his mate to conceal the boy from view.

Eggsy’s eyes were bleary with exhaustion when he managed to blink them open.

“Good heavens, Eggsy,” Harry huffed, breathing in the boy’s scent in the warm shell of his wings, “when did you last sleep?”

“Uh… wednesday?”

“That was three days ago,” Harry admonished.

Eggsy tried to shrug but winced again.  Shifting the boy in his arms, Harry brushed his fingers over his oil gland before lifting the lad’s shirt and pressing gentle fingers to the wound.

Eggsy hissed then groaned in pleasure, his blue eyes suddenly swallowed with an Incubus’ hunger.  Harry found that, despite his own fatigue, his body responded.

“Harry,” Eggsy growled, predatory with need.

“Take what you need,  _ inamoratus _ ,” Harry urged.

Eggsy lunged forward, sealing his lips against the bare skin of Harry’s neck but Harry felt nothing.  He had never fed an Incubus but he was fairly certain he would feel  _ something. _

“No,” Eggsy murmured against his neck, not moving away.  “You’re too tired. I can feel it.”

“You’re hungry.”

“I’ll be fine unless I gotta cast spells.  Ain’t gonna hurt you, Harry and I could. I could hurt you.”

“Eggsy,” Harry said, chest thrumming with affection as he nuzzled his forehead against the young man’s temple.  His whole body shivered with recognition as Merlin’s fingers brushed over his wing joint. “Husband,” he greeted, Eggsy stiffening in his arms.  “It will be alright,” Harry tried to soothe the lad before he set Eggsy back on his feet and tucked his wings against his back, cool air rushing back in.

Merlin’s eyes were glittering with something like happiness or maybe relief, it was a blur through Harry’s mind where he could sense his husband but it was all good things.

“Eggsy,” Merlin said softly before suddenly dropping to one knee in the middle of the walkway.  Gathering Eggsy’s hand, he pressed his forehead to the back. “Forgive me, lad. It was foolishness that kept us away.  I wanted to protect ye. But I didn’t… we didn’t know ye…”

“Who’s fault is that?” Eggsy snapped.

Merlin jerked his head up, meeting Eggsy’s eyes.  “Mine, lad. The fault is mine alone.”

“Harry - “

“Is my soulmate, my husband, but also my subject.  He obeys me when I demand it be so. If there’s blame to be laid I ask ye put it on my shoulders.”

Eggsy nodded his understanding.  “Does that mean I can punch you?”

Merlin chuckled as Eggsy tugged him up, “Aye, if ye wish.”

_ “Faex _ , you’re tall,” Eggsy hissed as Merlin stood.  Then he glanced between them, getting a good look.  “I guess you’re the same height. Why does Merlin seem so much bigger?”

“You’re sensing his Presence,” Harry explained.

“Means you’re proper frightful, yeah?”

Merlin’s gaze was a little sad as he admitted, “Not to ye, I hope.”

Eggsy snorted, “You’d have to be a hell of a monster to scare me, babe.”

Harry beamed as the two men really looked each other over, getting the measure of one another.  Eggsy didn’t know Merlin, but if he had he would have known he couldn’t have chosen his words any better.  Merlin had grown up the heir apparent to a powerful dynasty and magically superior besides. Everyone feared him.  It had been a lonely existence. 

“I apologise, lad, but it isn’t safe out here.  With the blood oath broken our enemies will be coming for you.”

“Already met me ones of those,” Eggsy grinned, pulling his jacket aside to show the blood-stained slash in his dark tee.

“Until we can hide you from him we need to get you behind our wards.  Will you come with us?”

“And if I don’t?”

“Then I’d ask ye go back to Magnus.  As much as the idea bothers me… he can protect ye if you can’t try to trust us.”

Eggsy gave Merlin another long, appraising look before he finally managed.  “Take me to your Batcave, babe.”

Merlin laughed, a sound Harry hadn’t heard in years, as he lifted the boy into his arms and launched aloft with Harry on his heels.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Imamoratus - Beloved (Latin)  
> Faex - Shit (Latin)


	6. Broken Pieces

“I think I’m afraid of heights,” Eggsy managed weakly, clinging to Merlin’s shoulders a little more desperately than the situation warranted even as the Nephilim laughed raucously.  Eggsy liked his laugh, rich and deep filled with a warmth that pooled in his belly and radiated out to his fingers and toes.

“Dinnae worry,  _ alil amyr _ ,” Merlin murmured in his ear, sending skittering pleasure through his veins.  “I wouldnae drop ye.”

“Even if I got really mouthy with you?” Eggsy teased, wrapping his arms around the man’s neck.  He couldn’t help himself, he reached out and brushed his fingertips along the ridge of one of Merlin’s glittering wings.   _ Christ _ , they were fucking beautiful.  The black swirled in the sunlight in deep blues, greens and purples, changing with the flex of the powerful muscles while the tips gleamed goldenly.

Merlin yelped at the touch, the two of them dipping in the air and sending Eggsy’s stomach into a flip before they levelled off.  “You shouldnae do that while I’m in flight, Eggsy.”

“Why?” he breathed, fascinated.

“It’s… intimate…”

Eggsy pressed his lips to the bare skin of Merlin’s head and  _ breathed _ .  The Nephilim's arousal slammed into him, the strength of it poorly concealed by the wind when Eggsy was so close.  “Fuck,” he hissed.

“Aye.”

“Kinda makes me want to do it again.”

Merlin chuckled, flashing him a warm smile.  “I wouldnae drop ye lad but that doesnae mean we wouldn’t go down together.”

“I thought your kind could fuck in midair.”

“Aye, we can… sometimes.  I doubt it would be safe with one mate without wings.”

A gleaming white streak went darting past them, buffeting them with an eddy of wind.  “Is that Harry?” Eggsy asked even as the man executed a tight barrel roll then arching, spinning into a sort of corkscrew that had Harry leaning his long body backward, creating a ring they passed through.

“He’s showing off for ye,” Merlin murmured in awe.  “Ancestors, sometimes I forget how lovely he is when he really  _ flies _ .”

“You love him,” Eggsy said, it wasn’t a question.

“Aye, lad, I do.  We’ve been together since we were quite young, his parents came to the palace and raised him beside me.”

Eggsy felt a stab of something… sadness for all his years of loneliness, jealousy for his own awful childhood but worst of all was the sense of unworthiness.  Eggsy focused on keeping his body loose, years of training under Magnus letting him control his muscles, his breathing so he telegraphed nothing

Harry caught up to them again, sweeping in so close the tips of his feathers brushed against Eggsy’s cheek, he fought the urge to reach out and touch him.  The gestured roused him from his thoughts, drawing a smile to his face.

“You’re a mage, like your father,” Merlin encouraged as he broke off from their flight over the river toward the centre of the city.

Eggsy tried not to go stiff in Merlin’s arms, tried to keep the pleasant look on his face but he failed utterly.

“I’m sorry, lad.  I dinnae mean - “

“It’s ok,” Eggsy deflected.

“Still, I - “

“Merlin?”

“Yes, lad?”

“Shut up.”

He felt the shift in Merlin’s body as he went to land, his wings making figure eights in the air to slow him down as his hips tilted under him.  Harry alighted next to them, all long-legged grace.  _ “Faex,” _ he hissed, clutching Merlin’s arms as the Nephilim put him down, adrenaline making his legs tremble.

“I’ve got ye, lad.”

“Thanks,” he tried to flash a reassuring smile.

Harry joined them, standing behind Eggsy and wrapping his impossibly warm wings around his chilled arms.  Eggsy swallowed the sigh that threatened to burble up at the soft brush of Harry’s feathers, Merlin’s large wingspan folding over Harry’s.  They spoke above him, rapid-fire Enochian that he had no hope of understanding before the light Nephilim’s arms wrapped around him and pulled him close.

His stomach decided to interject with a noisy growl, Harry’s echoed it.

It was their laughter, Merlin and Harry’s that made the sadness crack inside him.  

“Hungry, lad?” Merlin asked.

“Starving.”

“What are ye in the mood for?”

Eggsy shrugged.  “Ain’t too picky.  Starve for a few years and you’ll eat anything.”

Merlin frowned at his confession and  _ shit _ , he hadn’t meant to make the man feel bad.  “Soon, I’d like to hear about your childhood.  I’d like ye to tell us.”

“It ain’t a pretty story, guv.”

“But,” Harry said, still holding him loosely, “it is yours.”  He gave Eggsy a squeeze before stepping away. “I’ll go order us food, shall I?”

“Aye, husband.  Enough for everyone.”

Eggsy pulled away, intent on following when Merlin’s hand - rough with sword callouses - stopped him.

“You need more than food for yer stomach, lad.  You would nae have been wounded if ye weren’t weak.”

Eggsy couldn’t look away from Merlin’s hand, his dark fingers wrapped around Eggsy’s pale wrist.  He shivered at the man’s rough brogue, at the sudden intimacy of the moment.

“And if I don’t want sex?”

“Take what ye need, in whatever manner makes ye comfortable, _alil amyr_.”

Eggsy’s body ached, a visceral longing that went down to his bones and Merlin… Merlin was a feast laid out before him.  In that one moment in the air Eggsy had felt the well of power within him, so deep he could not fathom its ending. He’d never sensed anything like it.

Unlike Harry, Merlin was not exhausted.

Eggsy turned, let himself be drawn back into the man’s arms, his soft wings wrapping gently around Eggsy’s body.  “May I touch you?” Eggsy said softly, formally.

“Aye,” Merlin breathed, angling his head so that his nose grazed along Eggsy’s cheek, the ghost of his breath caressing Eggsy’s skin.

He buried his fingers into the soft down of Merlin’s underwing, revelling in the sudden roar of desire in the Nephilim.  “Take off your armour.”

Merlin pressed his hand into the leather of his chest plate and it phased away, swirling into the tattoo of a shield in the center of his belly over his navel.

“Handy,” Eggsy murmured as he moved closer, grazing his lips over the bare skin laid out before him.

“May I touch ye?”

Eggsy stilled as panic sparked inside him... he wasn’t sure why.

“Just a bit,  _ alil amyr, _ I want to feel ye.   _ Please _ .”

He ran his hands over Merlin’s where they were clenching and unclenching in the air between them.  The Nephilim shuddered at the contact as Eggsy guided Merlin’s hands to his hips.  Ruching up his shirt, he let Merlin settle his hands against the bare skin of his waist even as he felt the roar of his own answering desire.

It didn’t hurt.

Of course, he knew it wouldn’t.  They were his soulmates. But suddenly that anxiety rushed out of him with a long groan as Eggsy collapsed into Merlin’s arms.  The Nephilim held him, steadied him as he gathered himself.

“Take what ye need,” Merlin breathed.

The first draw of Merlin’s power into himself was a delicious agony, like nothing he’d ever felt with Magnus.  It was like his whole life he’d had to sip and nibble at a tasteless meal and suddenly he could gorge on a sumptuous feast.  Eggsy licked up the column of his neck, the chemicals in his saliva activating and forming a bridge that he could feed from. Eggsy let out a long groan as he clung to Merlin’s shoulders.

He felt amazing.

“Don’t stop,” Merlin pleaded, his cock heavy where it pressed against Eggsy’s belly.  He realised he was rutting against the man, he’d been so lost in the absolute pleasure of his taste that he hadn’t noticed.

“Lift me,” Eggsy demanded.

Merlin obeyed, the half breed wrapping his legs around the nephilim’s hips as Merlin lowered them to the soft mats, wings cocooning around him.  He buried his fingers in Merlin’s soft feathers, exploring gently as they puffed up beneath his touch. Eggsy wondered what that meant but couldn’t ask as he spread open mouthed kisses along the ridges of Merlin’s collarbones before tugging the man down into a kiss.

The nephilim whimpered into his mouth, a sound something like relief and underneath Eggsy’s hands he felt the man shudder.  Eggsy licked into Merlin’s mouth, nipping at the soft full swells of his lips. The man matched his ardour, giving back the jagged edges of desire until they were gasping between each rough slide of teeth and tongue.

Energy crackled around them, a wind rushing through the room and swirling as he drank deeply.

“Please… please...” Merlin begged.

Lightning sparked, dancing between their bodies as Eggsy’s skin started to glitter, warmth radiating out from him.

“Stop,” Harry commanded, his voice cutting through the room.

“Fuck,” Eggsy hissed, pulling away only to bury his face in Merlin’s neck, the heady scent of arousal mixing with something earthy and warm in his natural aura.

Merlin’s head snapped up, growling at his husband with long wicked fangs lowered nicking his lip.  Blood dribbled down his chin as his eyes dancing with energy, he looked like an avenging angel come to smote in the name of God.

Recognition flashed across his face and, with a shake, the fangs disappeared and he was Merlin once more.

“What was that?” Harry hissed, kneeling near Eggsy’s head, Merlin phasing his wings away so Harry could come close.  Eggsy whimpered at the loss of warmth and comfort.

“What do ye mean?”

“That magic… it disrupted the wards or rather… over charged them?  Everything is vibrating with energy.”

Eggsy realised how bright the room was, the lighting spells overflowing with power.  He reached out with his mind and pulled the energy back into himself and found there was hardly any room.  He felt like a waterskein overfull and ready to burst. He’d never felt so alive with power.

“Are you alright?” Eggsy managed against the tightness of arousal in his throat.  “I shouldn’t have taken so much.”

“I’m fine.  I hardly noticed.  Ye can take more if ye need.”

“No, I - “ Eggsy pushed himself up on his elbows, Merlin retreating back to give him enough room.  He reached out, palming the nephilim’s sternum and sensed him with his magic. Merlin let him in, let thin tendrils of magic search him for injury.  Merlin was fine which… it should have been impossible even as powerful as the nephilim was he should have suffered some weakness.

Harry asked, “Are  _ you _ alright Eggsy?  You’re glowing.” 

He looked down and found that it was true, his body gleaming like he swallowed moonlight.

“Your  _ eyes _ ,” Harry whispered reverently, reaching out to cup his cheek.  Harry tilted his head until he could look down into Eggsy’s face.  “So beautiful. It’s like the blue of your eyes are jewels glittering in the sun.”

“They should be black, I was just feeding.”

“They aren’t,” Harry said softly, thumb swiping across his cheekbone.  “May I kiss you?”

Eggsy nodded, leaning into his other mate as Harry’s arm snaked around his waist and pulled him close.  Where Merlin was roughness, Harry was gentle and his mouth moved over Eggsy’s like it was listening to some secret instruction, finding all the right ways to make him sigh in pleasure.  It was too soon when the older man pulled away.

“Don’t stop,” Eggsy cried, mirroring Merlin’s earlier words.

“You are drunk on power,” Harry explained, dropping his forehead to Eggsy’s even as he held on.  “As much as I’d like to believe earning your trust is so easy… I think you should come down from whatever you and Merlin just did.  If you want more then… well, my lips are alway available to you, my darling boy.”

Eggsy frowned but Harry’s words back sense.  He was floating on a pillow of euphoria and everywhere his body touched his mates’ it felt so good,  _ so right _ .

“Ok,” Eggsy murmured.

“Can you stand?” Harry asked.

He frowned.  “Do I have to?  Can’t I just stay here for a minute?”

“Of course ye can,” Merlin said, fingers smoothing over the plane of his belly.

Eggsy flopped back down on the mats, frowning when his mates didn’t move to join him.  “Fine,” he huffed, annoyed that they weren’t touching him, “I’ll get up.”

“Eggsy - “ Harry began but he was already moving, fleeing up the staircase in the corner.  Harry had been right, he’d been high as anything and he was coming down… hard. His whole body was aching and screaming at him to fall into their arms.  That, more than anything scared the shite out of him.

He was so distracted that he didn’t see the man standing at the top of the stairs and barreled straight into a bespoke suit clad chest.  “Whoa there, young man,” a tall, elegant man said as he gripped his biceps. His blue eyes sparkled in amusement. “Where’s the fire?”

“I… uh…”

Another man with ash brown hair and dark eyes looked up from the dining table, ‘cause evidently the stairs led straight into a modern kitchen that flowed or shared space with a dining room, the whole thing open and airy with a giant wall of windows to his left.  Beyond the kitchen was an sparse lounge and a large door, past and visible through the windows on either side was the gleam of elevator doors. Long history made Eggsy look for an escape whenever he entered a room. 

“You must be Eggsy,” the other man said, rising fluidly in a way that man Eggsy think of jungle cats.

“Yeah… I am.”

“Pleasure to meet you,” the first man said, stepping back and offering his hand.  “I’m not sure if your father ever mentioned me - “

“Wouldn’t know if he did,” Eggsy snapped.  He felt very trapped with the stairs behind him and his mates likely to join them any minute and  _ fuck _ if he had zero interest in talking about Lee-fucking-Unwin who’s shadow he was unworthy enough to stand in.  That jittery vulnerable feeling under his skin intensified as his breathing came in short, painful jabs.

He was going to have a panic attack.

Magic surged up around him of its own accord, his hyper-active protective instincts seeking to defend him in his distress.  It took all his control not to unleash that power in the man’s face.

“James,” Harry’s voice softly commanded from behind him, lower on the stairs.  “Back away from my mate.”

The nephilim jerked as if struck then babbled, “I’m sorry Prince-Consort, I did not mean - “

“Husband,” the other nephilim called out, regarding Eggsy with fathomless eyes, “back up.”

James did then, stumbling away until he was at the table next to his mate.

Eggsy inhaled a long deep breath, and then another as his magic cycled back down.

“Better?” Harry said, still a distance behind him.

“How did you…?”

“I’m an empath.  Percival,” Eggsy figured Harry meant the other bloke, “is a telepath.”

“I can’t read his thoughts,” the nephilim provided.  “I read yours, Prince-Consort. Eggsy’s mind is entirely occluded from my skills.”

“That shouldnae be possible,” Merlin said, brushing Eggsy’s arm lightly before passing him and into the kitchen.  “You are the most talented telepath I’ve ever seen. Even I cannae barely guard my mind against ye.”

“Eggsy’s mind is unreadable to me,” Percival said with a shrug.  “Why, I do not know.”

“I know,” Eggsy huffed.  “You could try asking me instead of talking about me like I’m not here.  I ain’t a fucking kid.”

Merlin turned to him, gaze hard with disapproval at the sharpness in Eggsy’s tone.  “To us, ye are and you willnae speak to me like that.”

Merlin's words were harsh and Eggsy didn't like being dressed down in front of strangers like he was a babe.  Hell, his own mates were practically strangers and Merlin was not gonna treat him like that.  “You know what?” Eggsy bit out.  “This was a mistake.”

Mind made up, Eggsy moved quickly pushing easily past the group who were all too stunned to stop him.  He jammed the button on the elevator, tapping his foot impatiently as he waited for the doors to open.

“Dinnae go,” Merlin said from behind him.

“That a fucking order?” Eggsy snapped, whirling only to find the nephilim close, too close.  Eggsy shoved a finger in his face, hating how the man towered over him. He would not be intimidated.  “I don’t care if you’re a fucking prince, you ain’t  _ my _ prince and you ain’t gonna treat me like that.”

“Eggsy…” Merlin sighed in frustration, capturing his wrist to tug his hand away.

“Don’t fucking touch me,” he hissed.  The elevator chimed and Eggsy backed into the space to put some distance between them.  “You’re a right arsehole. Good enough to fuck, am I? All sweet nothings when you’re kissing on me.  But listen to me like I’m your equal… that’s too much? Well excuse the fuck outta me  _ Prince Merlin _ but I ain’t signing up for that  _ shite _ .”

The doors started to close but Merlin threw his forearm against them and they moved open again.  “You’re angry.”

“You’re an  _ arsehole _ ,” Eggsy spat.

The shock on Merlin’s face almost made him laugh.  “No one speaks to me this way.”

“Maybe that’s the fucking problem, now let me go.”

“No.”

“No?” Eggsy hissed in suprised outrage.

Beyond the line of Merlin,’s body Eggsy saw Roxy come stumbling into the lounge, her whole being trembling and he could hear - like the sound had suddenly focused to only her - the harsh pant of hyperventilating.  He knew what that was.

The healer in him demanded he help and, since fighting with Merlin was getting him no where he did just that.  Ducking under Merlin’s arm he dashed back into the house, ignoring the man’s indignant sputters. A quick glance as he passed back into the room showed Harry collapsed against the kitchen island clutching his head with James lingering close and Percival kneeling beside him speaking soothingly.  No one had even noticed Roxy.

“Rox,” he said softly as he cut her off in the lounge, “it’s ok, babe.”

He was gentle as he guided her down to the couch and pressed her head between her knees.

“Breathe babe, you’re having a panic attack.”

She whimpered, trembling, but didn’t fight him.

“My heart,” Percival murmured, moving close slowly.  So he'd noticed them, after all.

Eggsy felt Merlin’s trembling anger over his shoulder, piercing through him.  “Leave Roxy to Percival,” he commanded, “I would talk with ye.”

“Go fuck yourself,” Eggsy spat.

The nephilim in the room gasped collectively.

Merlin’s hands were on his arms, hauling him up and away from Roxy, pinning him in place under the onslaught of the prince’s rage.  Eggsy felt the crackle of Merlin’s magic, called in anger, saw the spark of power in his hazel eyes.

“You gonna hit me, guv?” Eggsy sneered, voice sharp and cold with disdain.  “If the collective cruelty of the Übbii couldn’t break me twenty years ago I doubt you’ll succeed.  But, if it makes you feel better… do it. Hit me.”

“Do. Not.” Merlin growled, baring his teeth.

“You’re a fucking bully,” Eggsy spat, not backing down.  “I ain’t afraid of you.”

Merlin sucked in a sharp breath and released him, the sudden movement sending him sprawling into a deep cushioned chair.

“Where are you going?” Harry cried as Merlin swept through the kitchen.

“Out to clear my head.”

“Husband - “

“Don’t,” Merlin said gently, pained.  “I will return, my love.”

Seeing them, the way they looked at each other, was like taking a knife to the guts.  No one ever loved him like that. He blinked, turning away only to see Percival and James holding Roxy close, rocking her and soothing her.

In a room full of people he felt very, very alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> alil amyr - little prince (Enochian)  
> faex - shit (Latin)


	7. Toxic

Roxy awoke to an empty bed from a nightmare of searching endlessly for her mates through the empty halls of the palace of Light and Shadow, the ground covered in blood.  In the breaths between sleep and wakefulness, her body sensed the cold in the bed surrounding her and she panicked.

They were gone.

They’d left her, just like their mating night.

She stumbled to her closet and dragged on an oversized shirt and pyjama bottoms before she was hauling herself down the short hallway toward the raised voices.  Her body was shaking and she couldn’t catch her breath even after she saw her mates in the kitchen tending to Harry.

Eggsy was suddenly there, guiding her to the couch.  He was saying things… soothing things but she couldn’t really hear them past the thundering in her ears.

The brush of Percival’s mind against her had her jolting in shock.

_ I’m here, my heart.  Breathe. _

Roxy hauled in air, ignoring the shouting around her as Percival’s black eyes caught hers and held.

_ Exhale. _

She let out the breath she was holding, sighing in relief as James’ warmth settled on the other side of her.  “What’s wrong, baby girl?”

She whimpered, turning enough to bury her face in his neck.

“Is it the shouting?  Are you developing your uncle’s empathic ability?” James asked.

“Wrong uncle,” Percival whispered across her to James.  He was right. She was related by blood to Merlin, the mistake reminded her how, despite their bond and mating, how little they knew about each other.

“You left,” she croaked.  “I woke up alone.”

_ “Baby girl _ ,” James said, voice soft with guilt.  “We wanted you to sleep, you were so tired.”

“Not here.”

“What?”

Roxy cleared her throat to make herself heard.  She met James’ eyes despite her body’s trembling.  “I don’t want to talk about this here.”

He scooped her into his arms, carrying her small form easily back down the short hallway and into her bedroom and she let him, nuzzling into his neck and taking comfort from his solid presence as Percival trailed quietly behind.

When they reached her bedroom - their bedroom - James sunk to the bed, settling Roxy between his long legs and against his chest.  Percival lingered in the doorway.

“Going to come in, hot stuff?” James teased but Percival didn’t smile, his face a neutral mask.

_ “Cammae?” _ Roxy whispered, eyes skittering over his body and wishing, not for the first time, that she had his gift to read minds.

Percival murmured, “How long?”

“What?” Roxy asked though she was pretty sure she knew what he meant.

“How long have you had the nightmares…?  The panic attacks…?”

Before she could answer before she could think of an answer, James was tilting her head to meet his stormy blue gaze, eyes soft with worry.  “This wasn’t the first time, baby girl?”

“No, I - I’ve had them since our mating.”

_ “Ancestors _ ,” James spat, “it’s been years.  How did we not know?”

Roxy tugged herself out of James’ loose hold on her, retreating to the other end of the bed.  “How did you not know?” she mocked. “You haven’t  _ been here _ .”

“You know what we were doing… the mission - “ 

“The mission,” Roxy agreed solemnly.  “It’s important… was important.”

“It was,” James said, crawling up to his knees on the bed to face her.  “Nothing would have kept me from your side if you’d asked… if you  _ told _ me.”

“I know!” she cried, trying to soften her features from the hard lines she could feel them settling into.  She wasn’t angry at them, not really. They’d all been given a difficult choice but she  _ hurt _ ; she’d been hurting.  “I know,” she said with resignation, sagging.

“You were in an untenable position,” Percival said, drawing her thoughts from her mind and making sense of them, “choosing between your people and your own needs.”

She nodded.

“We are here now, my heart,” Percival said gently.  “Tell us how we can help.”

“Don’t leave when I’m asleep.  Not both of you, not even for a little bit.”

James nodded, Percival joining with a single rise and fall of his dark-haired head.

“And - “ she hesitated, not used to asking for what she needed, “make love to me?  I need your touch.”

James face transformed into a wicked grin.  “I could never refuse you, baby girl.”

~~~

Eggsy needed fresh air, needed to breathe. He didn't try to leave again... where would he go?  If he stepped outside of the wards someone would try and kill him. He went back below, out to the balcony and gulped deep breaths of fresh air.  Pressing his back against the glass windows, Eggsy sank down until he was sitting on the marble.

It was cold so high above the city and the wind lashed into his very bones.  He shivered but he didn’t stand, he’d rather brave the cold than whatever reception he’d get back in the flat.  Eggsy’s anger was waning, leaving only a hollow sort of misery.

“Dzrat join you?” The unfamiliar sibilance had Eggsy’s head snapping toward the open doorway, the imp holding a half dozen cartons of Chinese takeaway in his arms.  

“I hope that ain’t all for me, bruv.”

The imp gave a weird sort of bobbing shrug, folding himself to the marble of the balcony when Eggsy motioned him over.  “I have brought many foods for the Young Prince. One-Eyed Prince thought of the Young Prince’s hunger.”

“It’s a kindness,” Eggsy murmured as he peered into the boxes, looking up when the imp went unnaturally still.

Dzrat’s large brown-green eyes, the colour of mildew and bogs but large and almond shaped in his head blinked once, twice before he murmured, “The Young Prince knows the way of the faelings.”

Eggsy nodded.  “You were once of the Slough, weren’t you?”

Dzrat hunched over, wings tucking close and tipping down like it’s whole body had suddenly wilted.  “Before the war and the  _ betrayal _ .  Dzrat has no clan now.  All Slough are scattered.  Dzrat is lucky. Mgga is lucky.  Princes take us in and we serve as we have always served.”

“Which of you is the matriarch?” Eggsy asked, steering the conversation away from the War of Purification.  It wasn’t a happy subject for him, either.

Dzrat went still again, blinking twice and Eggsy wondered if that was a gesture of surprise.  “Can Young Prince not tell? Mgga is so pretty compared to Dzrat and much larger. Mgga is sister-twin and matriarch after Rgnagga fell.  Dzrat is lowly brother-twin.”

Eggsy groaned as he selected the mei fun, popping a shrimp into his mouth.  Dzrat was eating hunks of sashimi with his fingers, slurping the raw fish without chewing.

“The Princes care about Young Prince,” Dzrat said suddenly, blurting it out into the silence of their meal before he withered again, his wings quivering as they tucked against him.

“In their way,” Eggsy agreed.  The imp seemed so young though, logically, Eggsy knew Dzrat must be older than he to have fought in the war.  He didn’t want to kick off with him. “Is Harry alright he was…” Eggsy pantomimed grabbing his head.

“The One-Eyed Prince feels the emotions of soulmates like daggers.”

“So when we fight, it hurts him?”

Dzrat bobbed or, rather, his head stayed still while his whole upper torso weaved back and forth.  “One-Eyed Prince feels all things between Princeling lovers but anger hurts more. When Young Prince had lovers, One-Eyed Prince wept.”

“Shit,” Eggsy murmured, a wave of pity for Harry followed quickly by a burst of anger.  Harry knew what having Magnus in his bed was doing to him, could feel some part or all of Eggsy’s pain but he still let Merlin convince him staying apart was better?  The food suddenly tasted of ashes and he put down the half uneaten carton, turning his blue eyes to the city.

“Young Prince is angry.”

Eggsy shrugged.  “Not at you, Dzrat.”

“At mates.”

“Yeah,” he croaked, swiping his hand down his face.  “I looked for them,” Eggsy grimaced. “I looked so fucking hard… I - God, I went into Fae territories for them.  I was convinced that they were beyond the reach of my scry even though I knew Fae don’t have soulmates so it’d have to be two half-breeds - “

“Fae kill half-breeds or abandon.”

“Yeah,” Eggsy murmured, “don’t I fucking know it.”

“Fae territories are dangerous for one not of the blood,” Dzrat said, his face was neutral but his wings were twisting.  Eggsy wondered if imps expressed emotion through their wings, it would make sense. Which, in turn, made him wonder if his mates did or… at least  expressed emotion through their wings as well as all the usual ways.

“I’ve got the scars to prove it.”  A tapping on the window had Eggsy jolting out of his thoughts and Dzrat scrambling to his feet.  

Harry cracked open the door and popped his head out.  “May I join you, Eggsy?”

He nodded even as Dzrat muttered about having something to do and fleeing.  “He afraid of you?” Eggsy asked.

Harry folded himself to the ground close enough that their knees brushed.  “Not as such. Imps have a very rigid hierarchy and, as his master, he isn’t as familiar with me as he is with Roxy and it seems, now, you.”

“It’s nice to have someone to talk to.  Ain’t really had that in years.”

“You could talk to me…?” Harry ventured.  He had changed into silk pyjamas and he must have been freezing except he seemed completely comfortable.  He looked odd without his wings.

“Not sure that’s the best idea unless you want me to kick off again.”

“You’re angry,” Harry sighed, not meeting his eyes.

“I got a right to be.”

Harry turned to him then, brown eye sweeping over Eggsy’s face, his shoulders as if trying to divine something.  “Magus has called. He wants to go looking for you.”

“You tell him I’m here?”

Harry shook his head.  “That’s your decision to make.”

Eggsy clenched his jaw against a swell of emotion, biting his tongue against the sharp reply threatening to burble up out of him.  Instead, he said, “Dzrat says it hurts you when we fight.”

“It does, like blades in my mind.”

“What’s it feel like when you fight with Merlin?”

“Like evisceration.  Like burning alive inside my soul.”

“Fuck,” Eggsy hissed.  “No wonder you don’t stand up to him.”

Harry shrugged.  “I’ve lived with it all my life.  Most people I can guard against but not my soulmates.  I’ve always felt everything you’ve both felt.”

There is was, that bone-deep rage at all the shit he’d been through for them when they hadn’t even  _ tried _ .  He’d felt Eggsy’s pain all along and… what?  It hadn’t mattered to him… to either of them.  

Fire flashed across his knuckles, the summoned flame licking up his arms before disappearing as Eggsy got control of his magic.  He hadn’t slipped his own leash on his power in years.

He shook as he tried to swallow down the anger, the hurt.

“And I do,” Harry murmured, seemingly oblivious to Eggsy’s anger though that couldn’t be the case since he was an empath, “stand up to him... when it is important.”

Eggsy flinched, the words hitting him in his  _ soul _ .  He’d always expected he wasn’t important to his mates but to have it confirmed  _ hurt _ .  He slid back enough that Harry’s knee wasn’t brushing his anymore, flattening his back against the wall as if it would swallow him up and stop the ache in his chest.

Harry turned to him, a look of horror on his face as he realised what he’d said.  “Eggsy - “ the Nephilim hissed, reaching for him.

“Fuck you,” Eggsy spat.  “Fuck you both.” He rose from the ground, moving around Harry on the large balcony.

“Don’t go - “

“I thought you were the nice one, you know?  I thought - You are both such fucking high-handed arseholes.”  Eggsy pushed up to Harry who had risen to his feet. He didn’t care about their height differences as he got in the Nephilim's space.  “I don’t need  _ you _ ,” he hissed, “to remind me I ain’t worth a damn, that I ain’t never been worth a damn to anyone.  I don’t - “ his voice cracked as Harry tried to pull him into a hug. It was instinct, years of training and  _ fighting for his life _ that had him twisting the out of Harry’s grasp and continuing it, rolling the man over his shoulder and slamming him to the ground.  Eggsy paused with his fist in the air, ready to come down on his own mate.

Realising what he was doing, he froze in horror.

“Eggsy - “ Harry said, softly, gently as his fingers reached out and tugged Eggsy’s fist from the air and pulled it to his chest.  He could feel the haphazard rhythm of Harry’s pulse fluttering underneath his fingers. “I know we’ve failed you and there’s no excuse to make it better, to make you forgive us… forgive me.  I knew it was a mistake, not coming for you and you’re right I felt some of your pain though the distance may have lessened it. All I can do is promise it will never happen again, that I will do everything in my power to be there when you need me.  I’m so… so sorry, dear boy.”

Eggsy looked down into the face of his soulmate, and just… couldn’t.  He breathed, shattered, “It ain’t enough. I - I don’t think it’s fixable.”

Eggsy rose from the ground, turning toward the house, toward escape.  “Eggsy, you cannot possibly be considering leaving. What about your needs?”

Sex.  Of course.  Hadn’t that been his whole life since he’d turned twenty?  Sex and his slavery to his own biology. 

“Didn’t need you for that before,” he said, swallowing the keen of pain as he felt his heart break.  He didn’t know if he’d be able to put himself back together after, wasn’t sure he wanted to. “I’ll survive.”

“Don’t go,” Harry begged, voice an open wound of pain.  Eggsy saw Harry rise, his likeness reflected in the glossy surface of the windows.

“I can’t stay.”

The first step was the hardest, the way Harry let out a high wail of pain but somehow he kept moving up the stairs in through the empty lounge, into the elevator and down to the fucking posh arsed lobby where everyone looked down at him like he didn’t belong.  Well, they were right, he didn’t.

When he stepped out to the kerb he looked around, trying to figure out a way back across town when a familiar sound reached his ears.  Growling in displeasure his demon cycle pulled up, blocking traffic and making Eggsy smile even if it was a weak one.

“JB,” Eggsy sighed, caressing the sealing rune and earning a pleased grumble from the bike.  “I’m sorry, bruv. I shouldn’t’ve left you like that but you’re supposed to go home if we get separated.”

JB made a displeased sound, the image of Eggsy getting on floating through his head.

“Wanna go for a ride, ducky?”

JB roared happily.

“Ok, babe," he murmured, slinging his leg over the seat.  "Take me to Magnus Bane.”


	8. Misery Business

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Beware the FEELS people.

Eggsy nearly sobbed with relief when, as he climbed the short steps in front of Magnus Bane’s townhouse, the warlock tugged open the front door and hauled him inside.  “I don’t deserve your forgiveness,  _ tinishu gezhi, _ but I am glad you are safe.”

“Mag - “ Eggsy gasped against his chest, fingers burying in the silk of his ridiculously gawdy golden robe, “Mag, you were right.  You were right to protect me from them…  _ fuck _ , you were right.”

“Oh, Eggsy,” Magnus breathed, “I didn’t want to be.”  There was a moment of silence as Magnus pulled him over the threshold, the familiar feel of his wards closing over Eggsy’s skin.  “You saw them?”

“Yeah… Harry’s a fucking empath.”

“I am aware.”

“Did you know that he felt my pain when we… when we…”

Magnus sucked in a breath, the air whistling past his teeth.  “Far be it from me to defend them but… with the wards and the distance, I doubt - “

“Evidently, that don’t matter when it’s your soulmate.   _ Fucking soulmates _ ,” he spat.

“Come,” Magnus said softly, guiding him with gentle hands further into his home, “you need rest.  Do you hunger?”

Eggsy shook his head.  “I ate and… Merlin fed me before it all went to shite.”

Magnus nodded firmly even as Eggsy scanned his face for emotion.

“I am not jealous,  _ tinishu gezhi,  _ if that’s what you think.”  Magnus sighed as he pushed Eggsy gently down into the cushions of the couch in his workshop, more private than the downstairs lounge where he so often entertained.  The office felt like Magnus’ real home, oddments and spell books scattered across surfaces; the built-in bookshelves covered in carefully labelled ingredients as herbs hung to dry from the ceiling on ropes strung from one end to the other.  With a flick of Bane’s wrist, the fireplace in the corner roared to life and spilling golden flames across the well-loved carpet.

The warlock settled across from him, looking as weary as Eggsy felt.

“I have so many apologies to make to you, I don’t know where to begin…”

“I ain’t sure I’m ready to hear them,” Eggsy said honestly, already sinking into the deep cushions of the couch, grabbing one of the throw pillows from where it had been knocked onto the floor and stuffing it under his head.  “I’m so fucking tired, Mag… feel like I could sleep forever.”

“As you wish, Eggsy.  You are safe here for as long as you wish to stay.  Rest. None will harm you.”

“They might come for me.”

Magnus growled.  “Then they will regret it.”

“Don’t kill ‘em,” Eggsy murmured, voice already going soft as the day’s events and exhaustion tried to claw him down into sleep.  

Being back with Mag was nothing like it had been the day before, it was like it had been years ago before they started fucking when Eggsy had felt proper safe for the first time in his life.  

God, that day, when Magnus  _ fucking _ Bane swept into the mundane police station and bailed him and Ryan no questions asked.

Of course, Eggsy hadn’t trusted the warlocks motives.  “Planning on a virgin sacrifice?”

Magnus had just arched a scarred eyebrow, amusement twisting his features as he sniffed the air.  “As if either one of you are virgins?”

Ryan had turned to him and hissed, “He can fucking  _ smell _ that?”

Magnus had burst into laughter, warm and bright.  Eggsy had decided any man, demon blood or no, who could laugh like that couldn’t be half bad.  

_ Hell _ , Magnus had saved his fucking life.  

They’d already been starving, teetering on disabling malnutrition.  How long until they started selling themselves for money? Incubi, half-breeds or not, fetched some decent money and people with soulbonds doubly so.  There were those out there who got off on the pain of hurting bonded…

So, when Magnus said he’d kept him from his soulmates to protect him, Eggsy believed him.  It hurt, but mostly ‘cause of the  _ lies _ , the lack of trust.  He couldn’t really fault the warlocks logic considering the day’s events.

He loved Magnus so fucking much, the warlock teaching him and encouraging him in a way no one else ever had.  He’d been almost a parent until…  _ faex _ , until they had started fucking.

“Why, Mag?  Why sleep with me?” he muttered, unable to sleep past the swirl in his thoughts.

“The first time…?  As I am sure you remember your awakening came early, while I was away and you were starving by the time I returned.  You were dying, Eggsy, for all I reassured you at the time. I had little choice.”

Eggsy nodded, ‘cause he did know that.  “But why keep on?”

Magnus laughed, but there was no warmth in the sound.  “I have not stopped asking myself that… Anything I say will be a justification, an excuse for the inexcusable.”

“I still wanna know.”

Magnus nodded solemnly.  “When I touch you, it’s like an echo of Lee… like I can feel him again.”  The warlock rose, pouring him a healthy dose of a violent purple liquid and knocking it back then pouring another before returning to his seat.  The man’s eyes were rimmed in red as he stared into the flames. “I promised him that no matter what happened I would protect you but I was injured and by the time I recovered enough to look for you your mother had already disappeared… taken you to the Übbii court but I didn’t know that at the time.  You were just gone and the spell that concealed you from the Nephilim concealed you from me just the same. 

“I was adrift.  I was without the sole purpose for my existence.  I hadn’t countenanced how utterly impossible it would be to survive without him.  We hadn’t even completed the bond - “ Magnus choked, wiping his eyes on the sleeve of his house robe.  “I was bleeding out, hoping I’d find you before someone did me the favour of ending my life. 

“I had  _ nothing _ left.

“Then my contact at the station called me and you were suddenly there and you looked so much like him and I could  _ fucking breathe again _ .  For all that he never raised you, there is so much of Lee in you and it eviscerates me but I wouldn’t trade it for the world.”

Magnus sighed, sipped his drink as he gathered his thoughts.  “You were like a son to me and then I fucked you and… some piece of Lee’s soul resided in you.  The spell he wove to keep you safe contained some part of him and when we touched in that way it was like he was  _ here _ , he was home and safe - “ Tears poured down warlock’s face raining over the gold carved into his flesh.  Mag sobbed and then he couldn’t stop, as if all the years he’d never cried came crashing down on him at once.

Eggsy couldn’t sit there and watch Mag tear himself apart for all that he was still punching mad.  He rose and wrapped Magnus in his arms, let the warlock weep into his chest.

Around the hiccupping sobs he managed, “It’s gone now… I knew it would when the spell broke I knew… It feels like he’s died again and I don’t think I can mourn him twice.”  Magnus wailed, a sound of visceral anguish Eggsy had never heard the likes of. “I kept them from you because I convinced myself I was doing the right thing but it would be a lie if I didn’t say I was also doing it for myself.

“I couldn’t let him go again.  I was too weak.”

Magnus tears subsided but Eggsy didn’t let him go, couldn’t because his friend’s tears had called his own and he’d started taking comfort as much as giving.

“I’m not a good man.  I never was. Lee was always the best part of me and sometimes… sometimes I  _ hate _ him and I hate myself for hating him but... dying was easy.  Living. Living in a world without him, that’s hard.”

He took a shuddering breath, Eggsy felt the tremors through his cheek where it was pressed over Magnus’ heart.

“For all that it is inadequate… I am sorry.  You didn’t deserve to be used in such a way and I have failed you utterly.  If anyone else had done that to you I would have killed them regardless of their - “

“I forgive you.”

The warlock stood, dislodging Eggsy as he began to pace.  “Don’t do that. Don’t forgive me Eggsy… I will  _ never _ be worthy of it.”

Eggsy blinked back more tears, rising to block the path of Mag’s pacing.  “Don’t matter, I forgive you anyways. I love you, Mag. You and Ry and JB are all I really got.  And you’re right, you got the shite end of the deal. Lee used your love for him to manipulate you, make you swear yourself to years of torture… ‘cause it were torture Mag, putting all that on you.   _ Faex _ , did you ever properly grieve?  Can you even grieve a soulmate?”

“The death of a soulmate kills the partner,” Magnus said flatly as if reciting from some tome.

“Then how…?”

He gestured vaguely to the gold on his skin.  “We bound my soul to this flesh so that it could not flee after its mate.”

“That’s fucked, Mag.”

The warlock nodded, letting Eggsy step close and hug him again.  “If there was such a thing as the afterlife, as reincarnation… if I ever had a chance of seeing Lee again it was taken from me with this spell.  My spirit is bound to this realm for eternity now.”

“Jesus fuck… were my life worth all that?”

Magnus cupped his chin, forcing him to look into those black depths dancing with hellfire.  “More, Eggsy. So much more.”

~***~

Merlin returned to a flat eerily quiet, even the hum of the appliances seemed muted.  “Husband?”

“Here,” Harry croaked, tucked into a ball in the corner of the couch.  He looked shattered - despondent.

“What has happened?  Where is Eggsy?”

“He left us,” the light Nephilim said without looking up, staring into some middle space beyond his knees.  “I don’t - “ Harry choked, “I don’t think he’s coming back.”

Merlin knelt before his mate, trying to catch Harry’s gaze but the man didn’t seem to see him.

“You promised me it would be ok, that we would defeat Chester and we’d make it up to him but - “ Harry’s breath started coming in fast jabs, the man falling apart before Merlin’s eyes.  He moved to hold his mate but Harry pushed him away viciously, Merlin falling onto his arse. He rose, wings crackling with power as they snapped out in a menacing threat.  _ “You promised - “ _

“I’ll speak to him, try to set things right,” Merlin soothed, holding up his hand in a warding gesture.  He didn’t fear Harry, not really, Merlin was one of the most powerful of his kind but he’d never raise a hand against his own mate.

“I can  _ feel _ it Merlin.  It’s  _ fucking agony _ .  I can’t - “ he panted.  “I can’t live like this - I can’t - “

“What are you saying, Harry?”

“I’m leaving you.  He told me he couldn’t forgive me but I - I - I can’t forgive  _ you _ .  I put my future, my trust in your hands and everything is gone.”

Merlin scrambled to his feet, a keen of anguish breaking from his chest.  “Please, Harry - “

“Don’t.  It’s too late.  Nothing you can say can stop this, Merlin.  It’s over. We are over.”

“Nephilim mate for life,” he managed dumbly, lamely.

Harry chuckled but the sound held no humour.  “Evidently not. Not for us.”

“Please,” the Prince begged, falling to his knees.  He didn’t care if he looked weak or if he had to set aside every bit of his pride.  “Please, Harry… husband. I can make this right, just give me a chance.”

“I can’t, Merlin.  I can’t.”

Merlin felt like the world was trying to swallow him but he managed to nod, to rise from the floor and put some distance between him and his m - between him and Harry.  “Go to the safehouse outside the city. Take Percival, Lancelot and Roxanne - “

“So they can spy for you?”

“So they can protect you,” he bit out, far too ill-tempered for any of the events of the day.  He’d gained everything and lost it again in mere hours. “I need to know you’re safe. Even though we will never meet again,” for he believed Harry, the man was not impulsive in affairs of the heart.  How long had his choices been stretching a divide between them that he hadn’t even noticed? Too busy caught up in the imperative to reclaim his throne to notice the one person he loved was pulling away? “I need to know Chester cannot use you against me.  Please… if you still bear some love for me.”

“I will always love you,” Harry murmured, “but it isn’t enough.”

Merlin turned away from his mate, looking out the windows over the city.  He barely heard Harry wake the others, tell them to pack as he watched the sun’s progress across the sky.  It was nearly dark when Harry stood behind him, three winged shapes launching to the sky from the balcony.

“Goodbye, Merlin.”

He said nothing, waiting until his mate went below and launched himself into the air before he murmured.  “I love you, husband.” 

Then he called Dzrat and Mgga, sending them to guard Eggsy. 

The clock on the wall was tolling nine bells as he forced himself upstairs to the room and bed he’d once shared with Harry.  It was in perfect order except suddenly half the armoire was empty, Harry’s book on the side table missing, Harry’s slippers no longer tucked by the bed.

Everywhere he looked there were pieces of the man he loved carved out of the life they’d made together.  He sunk to the mattress, one side still perfectly made with military precision and grieved.


	9. You Don't Own Me

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings for descriptions of child abuse.

Eggsy lasted all of four days before being the third wheel for Mag and Ryan got to be too much.  He was excited for them he just couldn't stand seeing them jump apart whenever he walk in a room.  Besides, he couldn’t leave Kingsman to Jamal and Brandon alone. The werekynde were good at some stuff, tracking down cheating spouses and recovering magical artefacts but they weren’t mages.

Magnus went with him, insisting on increasing the wards on the building and giving Eggsy an amulet that, if broken, would notify he was in danger.

“You need to find a source to feed from,” Mag warned, brown furrowed in concern as he stood in the centre of Eggsy’s dingy little flat above Kingsman consulting, Ryan chatting the men in the office below.

Eggsy shrugged.  “Shouldn’t be a problem.  ‘Case you haven’t noticed, I’m pretty damn fit.”

Magnus quirked an eyebrow, amusement twisting his lips.

“Too soon?”

The warlock rolled his eyes but didn’t answer, flicking a little more energy at the sealing rune on the wall.  “I will return every week to replenish them but should you require it before, you know how to find me.”

Eggsy gave Mag a jaunty salute, “Aye, aye captain.”

“Berk,” Magnus growled in mock annoyance.

“Prat.”

When the warlock swept out and he was finally alone, he sighed.  Things between him and his mentor were tense, a tentative forgiveness that made Eggsy hope that their friendship wasn’t beyond repair.  It was definitely fucked, what Magnus had done, but Eggsy couldn’t say he would’ve done differently.

After only knowing his soulmates for a few hours, being apart from them was an agony that he tried to pretend he didn’t feel.

They hadn’t, as he’d warned Magnus, come looking for him.  Seemed they weren’t gonna try and mend things at all. Eggsy wasn’t sure if he was more angry that they didn’t even try or relieved that they took him at his word.

Proof that they didn’t see him as something worthy, something worth fighting for.

At least he wouldn’t need to feed for a while.  He wasn’t even trying to conserve his magic but he felt full to the brim with energy, though it was starting to expend.  He’d need to feed eventually.

He would deal with the pain of taking from a stranger, he wasn’t going to go begging for scraps from two men who didn’t want him.

“So,” Eggsy said, sweeping into the offices of Kingsman, surprised to find Ryan still there.

The shifter shrugged.  “Always got your back, Eggsy.”

“Alright, bruv,” he grinned, clapping his mate on the shoulder, “what have we got?”

Jamal handed him a stack of files, Eggsy almost regretted asking.

Ryan went with him as he met with a bunch of inmates, mostly lawyers wanting them checked for compulsions or curses.  Only one was actually under a geis, Eggsy spending two hours documenting the spell before removing it. It had become a popular defence lately, blaming their actions on someone casting a spell.  It wasn’t that common, and rarer to be able to sense and remove them. Even if that was all Kingsman did he’d be kept pretty busy.

His friend was pretty bored, entertaining himself by shifting something small in his appearance and seeing how long it would take Eggsy to notice.  They’d played that game as kids, his favourite was always when Ryan impersonated celebrities. He could’ve made a mint in entertainment.

They stopped at the fish market on the way back and, as Ryan ducked inside to say goodbye before heading back to Bane’s, Eggsy climbed to the roof.  Dzrat nearly jumped out of his skin as Eggsy came onto the gravel surface.

“Hey, bruv,” he greeted, the imp bobbing a series of complex gestures with his wings that Eggsy couldn’t begin to guess at.  “Brought you dinner.”

“Young Prince!” he gasped, then chittered before bowing low enough to touch the tip of his wing joint to the ground.  “Prince knows we are here.”

“Yeah.  I’d be a pretty shit PI if people could just follow me around for a week and not be noticed.”  Eggsy looked around at the roof before he said, “Where’s your sister?”

“Mgga is - “

The purple imp landed hard spraying stones in her wake as she drew a wicked dagger from her skin.  “Prince will not harm brother-twin!”

“Whoa!” Eggsy cried, holding out his hands.  “Just brought you some food, ain’t wanting to harm anyone.”

“Young one harms mates, will harm Dzrat,” she spat, not lowering her dagger.

Eggsy shoved the hand that wasn’t holding the bag into his pocket, hunching his shoulders.  “It’s complicated, yeah? ‘Sides, they got each other.”

“Princes have no one!” she hissed, eyes seeming to glow with anger.  “One-Eyed Prince left Two-Eyed Prince, gone now! Young Prince broke mates!”

“Mgga!” Dzrat wailed in distress, chittering and flapping in what he thought might be their native language.

Mgga shot him another dangerous look before she hid her blade and sulked to the other end keeping a watchful eye.

“So,” Eggsy huffed, “she hates me, yeah?”

“One-Eyed Prince gave for Mgga.  Mgga loves Prince for it. Protects like hatchling.”

“Gave what?”

Dzrat blinked twice before he said, “Gave eye.” The imp spun, perching on the brick edge of the roof, tucking his wings in tightly.

Moving slowly, Eggsy went and sat beside him, handing him the bag of raw fish.

“Many appreciations, Young Prince,” he murmured before tearing into the package.  Eggsy sat there in silence as Dzrat got up and took some to Mgga before returning to eat his own.

“If she loves Harry so much, why ain’t she protecting him?  Why are you two here?”

“Two-Eyed Prince is matriarch.  Must obey. Two-Eyed Prince commands protect little mate, Mgga and Dzrat serve.”

“I don’t need protection, you can go back to him and tell him that.”

Dzrat looked at him blankly, eyes green and half slit.

“You ain’t gonna, are you?”

“Young Prince wise.”  Dzrat picked up a filet of fish and swallowed it down whole, throat expanding to let the meat pass into his stomach.  It was horrifying in a fascinating sort of way.

Eventually, he said, “Did they really break up?”

Dzrat bobbed.  “One-Eyed Prince left with rain from eyes.  Little Princess says does not eat, does not sleep.  Has mate sickness.”

“Mate sickness?”

Dzrat’s head danced side to side before he muttered, “One-Eyed Prince wishes for death.”

_ “Christ,” _ Eggsy hissed.  Thankfully a peal of thunder in the distance kept him from having to say something to  _ that _ .  “You should come inside.  Protect me from there.”

“Twins need nothing from mate-betrayer,” Mgga spat, though she’d eaten so there was that.

Dzrat hissed, rolling to his feet and flaring his wings out blocking Eggsy from her sight.  They chattered back and forth for a while before he shouted, “Stop it! Stop fighting over me.”  Eggsy sighed, palming his neck. “I ain’t worth it… Listen… I’ll leave you be just promise you’ll come in if you wanna come in.  I’ll leave the roof door unlocked.”

“Dzrat promises, for both twins.”

“Thank you.”

~~~

Roxy picked up yet another plate of food from her uncle’s room, the nourishment untouched and unmoved.  At least he’d drank the pitcher of water, that time.

Harry was unspeakably pale as he stared out the bay window of his rooms toward London, though the city was too far away to actually be seen, even from the air.

Percival looked up from his place by the fire, a book perched in his hand.  One of her mates was always with Harry, worried as she was worried that he’d try to end his own life.

There was no such thing as divorce amongst her people, no such thing as separation.  The soulbond assured your perfect mate. Yet Harry could not even hear his mates’ names without weeping and on her brief calls with Merlin he’d asked her not to update him beyond saying that Harry lived.  Merlin didn’t want her spying for him.

Ancestors, but she wanted to knock their heads together until they saw sense.

“I’m going to the city,” she said to James as she scraped the food into the bin.

“Ok,” he rose immediately, “I’ll come with you.”

“No.” Roxy held her hand out, staying her lover.  “Eggsy doesn’t know you.”

“He hardly knows you.”

She shrugged.  “I know but… I don’t know, we’ve sort of bonded?  He will speak to me.”

“And what do you think he will do for Harry?” James said, voice tight with disapproval.  “He does not want them.”

“I don’t think it’s that simple.”

“Lee would - “

“Maybe,” Roxy snapped, “that’s half the problem.  You know how many times you people bring up his father? Like he’s some lesser consolation prize to his dad?  I’d be ‘round the twist if people constantly compared me to my mother.”

James blushed, clearing his throat. 

Percival swept into the common room.  “I will go with you.”

“I just did this with - “

“It is not to protect you,” he explained, body tight with stress, “though I will always protect you. I need to speak to their mate.”

“Percival - “

He cut her off, raising his hand to silence her.  “There are things that must be said.”

Roxy looked to James for help, confused.  He looked as befuddled as she felt, shrugging his shoulders helplessly.  “Ok. Do you want to share?”

“No,” he said firmly as he moved passed her, only the gentle trail of his fingers over her hip telling her that he wasn’t angry.  His face was little more than a mask, devoid of emotion. “James,” Percival added, pausing with his hand on the front door knob, “if Harry seeks to come to the city later you will allow it.  Follow. But allow it.”

“Yes, husband.”

Percival turned his black eyes to her.  “Are we going, my love?”

They launched into the sky together in silence.

~~~

Eggsy left Mgga and Dzrat on the roof, the twins determined to keep watch from outside.  He had the feeling he could have convinced Dzrat inside if Mgga hadn’t been there with her disapproving face.

He jumped when he saw the Nephilim sitting in his office, reaching for his katanas before Roxy stepped in front of him.  “Hi, Eggsy.”

“Hey, Roxy,” he huffed, shoving his blades back in their sheaths.  “You could knock.”

The stranger said, “It is dangerous for my mate to be outside.”  The man turned and Eggsy realised he wasn’t a stranger. He was one of the men from his mates’ home.

“They send you?” he bit, tossing back his chin defensively.

“No,” the man said calmly.  “If either knew I was here they would seek to stop me.”  He turned his dark eyes to Roxy. “Will you leave us, my love?”

“Sure,” she said, though she looked like she wanted to stay.  “I’ll be outside.”

“So,” Eggsy said, settling in his desk chair and putting his feet up.  He expected the posh bloke to wince or summat at his lack of manners but it was like he was a robot, nothing showed on his face or in the lines of tension in his body.  “What can I do for you Mr…?”

“Percival of Clan Blood.”

“That supposed to mean something to me?”

The Nephilim sighed heavily.  “I had hoped Magnus had taught you something of our world but it seems he did not.”

Eggsy scoffed.  “Mag  _ hates _ Nephilim.  Taught me how to fight you, how to kill you.”  He conjured a bit of hellfire, the man flinching a bit in the eyes.

“Then he did you a disservice.”

“Lot of that going around,” Eggsy sneered.  “People doing me disservices.”

Percival looked down into his lap, as his long pale fingers clasped so tightly Eggsy was surprised the bones didn’t creak.  “Forgive me,” he said finally into the silence, “I know what must be done but I am finding that it is difficult to break my vow.”

Eggsy’s brow arched at that.  “Vow to who?”

“Whom,” Percival corrected like a prat before adding, “apologies, my Prince.”

“I  _ ain’t _ your prince.”

He met Eggsy’s eyes then, the black depths glittering with the echo of Angelfire.  “Whether you wish it so or not, you are. From the moment you were born.”

“What do you want from me?” Eggsy hissed, dropping his feet to the floor and leaning in.

“May I tell you a truth?”  At Eggsy’s nod, he continued.  “A long time ago I served Chester King without question.”

“Ain’t Chester like, Merlin’s mortal enemy?”

The man rolled his eyes but said, “In a fashion.  He’s his uncle and currently the King. But, in those days he was not.  You see, Merlin’s grandmother, Isolde King left two children… two sons. Her chosen heir was Arthur King, a good man and a good ruler and the other was Chester.  Chester was pure-blooded. Arthur, through his father’s line, was not.”

“So,” Eggsy interrupted to make sure he understood, “they were half brothers… Arthur and Chester?”

Percival nodded and continued, “There were objections to him taking the throne but then he married a pure-blood from Clan Gossamer and the deficiency in his blood was considered minor.  No one wanted a clan war, especially over Chester who was not well-loved. Still, there were those amongst the clans, like my parents, who believed a single drop of human blood made you tainted.

“Then Morgana and Arthur married their third, Lucien Morton - “

“Roxy’s dad?”

“Roxanne’s grandfather.  Lucien was not only not a pure blood, he was entirely human.  The Purifiers, though they did not call themselves that, were beside themselves.  Morgana had already birthed Merlin but when the second son was born they demanded tests be done to find out who the father was and when he was found to be Lucien not only did they strip Uther, Roxanne’s father, of his birthright they took the King name.  Always children took the clan name of the kind they presented as. When Uther presented as dark Nephilim he should have been named ‘King’ regardless of his parentage since his other father was not clan blooded.

“To those who saw the lesser bloods as unworthy, it was a victory.  They pushed for more, to marginalise those with tainted blood. There were rumours of rebellion but, ostensibly, Chester was loyal to his brother and without Chester’s support the Purifiers had no one to put on the throne in Arthur’s place.  Then Arthur and Lucien were killed in an ‘accident’.”

“How old was Merlin?”

“Nearly twelve, though you would have considered him much younger.  Our children aren’t considered adults until their twentieth birthday, akin to a sixteen-year-old human.

“Soulmates,” Percival sighed, “are not meant to outlive each other.  Sometimes they can survive if one is killed, certainly, Chester has, but not two.  Morgana did and no one knows how. She’d always been easily manipulated, too weak-willed for rule but Lucien and Arthur had guarded her fiercely.  When they died… she lost her mind. Tried to drown her own sons.

“Chester was named regent and guardian until Merlin’s majority - “

“Don’t get me wrong,” Eggsy interjected.  “I appreciate the history lesson but I ain’t got a clue what this has got to do with me.”

“Please,” the man pleaded, Eggsy had the distinct impression Percival never pleaded with anyone.  “You will understand in a moment.” The dark Nephilim rose, going to the window and staring out at the road, hands clasped stiffly behind his back.  “What I am about to tell you, no one knows. Not James, not Roxanne. Merlin and Harry made me swear an oath. They would be well within their rights to take my life for telling you this, but you must know.”

Eggsy swallowed hard but listened.

“My parents were Purifiers and I, raised by them, was as well.  I came into my majority the same year the Kings were killed and I was immediately sent to the palace.  You see, Chester has control of little Merlin and he needed to keep it that way. He replaced the Prince’s guard with men loyal to him who watched Merlin day and night and reported on everything.

“Ancestor’s mercy, I was one of them.

“Chester developed rules, endless rules, meant to break the young man’s spirit.  Merlin attended lessons for twelve hours a day and, between each would be drilled on what he’d learned.  If he fell short, Chester beat him.”

_ “Fucking hell - “ _

The Nephilim continued.  “He was never alone. He ate under guard, slept under guard, bathed and used the restroom under guard.  There is no part of Merlin’s body that hasn’t been seen by the same men who meted out those beatings, who humiliated and abused him.”

Percival drew in a shuddery breath and Eggsy realised he was weeping, though his voice remained steady.  “Once, he tried to fly away. I brought him back and held him down for Chester while the Regent set fire to Merlin’s baby wings.”

“You - “ Eggsy flew at Percival, gripping him by the bespoke suit and punched him in the face.  The man didn’t defend himself as Eggsy held him down to the floor. “How could he trust you after that?”

“I couldn’t protect him,” Percival growled, anger turned inward.  Eggsy could feel the self-loathing rolling off of him. “I saw what Chester was doing… I had planned to get Merlin away like I had gotten Uther, his half-brother, away months before.  It wasn’t enough but it was something…”

“What happened?” Eggsy growled, baring his teeth.

“They found Harry!” he cried.

Eggsy released Percival, walking to the furthest edge of the room from the other man.  “He’s not scarred. I ain’t seen any scars.”

“Anything can be healed by a Light Nephilim’s healing oils and Chester made sure the Crown Prince was never marked by what was done,” Percival’s voice was tight with emotion.  “When he tried to tell people, on the rare occasion he saw them, Chester told everyone Merlin was insane like his mother.

“You don’t - “ Percival choked, rising from the floor and watching him with tear filled eyes.  “I don’t know if I can make you understand what was done to Merlin and, eventually, what was done to Harry.  The Prince… he was so brave, always worried about Uther and Chester used Uther against him - “

“Then you got Uther free,” Eggsy said flatly, understanding dawning.

“I  _ didn’t think _ .  I didn’t think of his soulmate because he’d never mentioned him.  I thought he hadn’t been born yet.” Percival sighed, flexing his hands uselessly in the air.  “He still didn’t trust me, was protecting Harry from me.”

Percival fell silent but Eggsy needed to know, even though every word made him was to carve the knowledge back out of his soul.  “Finish it,” Eggsy demanded.

“I can’t - “ the Nephilim said, trembling.  “I - “

“Finish. It.”

“Harry was,” Percival managed, “like any young man.  Stubborn. Willful. He broke all the rules and Merlin… Merlin began to become strong again.  He had hope again because no matter how much Chester’s people beat Harry, he wouldn’t break.

“Chester was a master sadist and if he was going to keep the throne he needed both Prince and mate under his thumb.  The next time Harry stepped out of line - “

The door burst open, defensive runes flaring then sputtering as Merlin strode in, Harry behind him.

“My Prince,” Percival said, dropping to his knees.

Merlin hauled Percival up by the neck pinning him to the wall.  "I will kill you."

"Please - " the man croaked, writhing under the pressure of Merlin's hand.

"Silence, betrayer."


End file.
